human rights

Prof. Mohanan Nair: Human Rights means the rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of being human. It is a term deriving from the doctrine of natural rights, associated with the Greco-Roman concept of ‘Natural Law’ since the end of the Middle Ages. The term came into wide use after World War II. It holds that individuals, by virtue of their humanity, possess fundamental rights beyond those prescribed in the Law. It was first formally incorporated into the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776). The General Assembly of the U.N. adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 followed in 1953 by the European Convention of Human Rights. In the late 20th century ad hoc international tribunals were convened to prosecute human rights violations and other crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. ‘The International Criminal Court’ which came into existence in 2002 was empowered to prosecute crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, and war crimes. U.S. which has been indulging in war crimes since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki conveniently withdrew from this. Many European powers followed suit and the court, as I understand, is dormant now.
However, the violation of human rights is a process that began from time immemorial and continues till the present day and may continue in the future. In ancient times it was the monarchy that annihilated human rights. In ancient cultures the killing of a human being or the substitution of an animal for a person was regarded as an attempt to commune with God, and to participate in Divine Life. It was common among the agricultural races for increasing the fertility of the soil. In ancient Egypt and elsewhere in Africa slaves and servants were killed or buried along with dead kings in order to provide service in the afterlife.
Coming down to the 15th, 16th and 17th, 18th centuries we find religion and colonialism as persecutors of human rights. Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, and Joan of Arc were all victims of religious persecution. Joan was burnt at the stakes and the others were either tortured or threatened with torture for speaking out what they believed to be the truth. And the colonial powers blatantly violated human rights by establishing colonies all over the world and indulging in slave trade. A slave was considered as a property and was deprived of the rights of human beings. In U.S history there were laws governing the status of slaves, called the “slave Code”. Slaves had no legal rights. In the court their testimony was inadmissible in cases involving the whites. They could not make any contract or own any property. They could not be away from their owner without permission. They could not be taught to read or write and above all they were not permitted to marry. Offenders were subjected severe punishment including whipping, branding, imprisonment and death. However, Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1833 and France in 1848. During the Civil War slavery was abolished in the US by the Emancipation Proclamation ordered by President Lincoln in 1863. However, slavery continues to exist in many parts of the world, though not officially recognized by any government.

Again in the 20th century we find the most atrocious violations of human rights during the two world wars and during the post-war period. The genocide of the Jews by a megalomaniac, the systematic rape of women, and the brutal killing of children will remain for ever as the blackest chapter in human history. I would rather like to dwell on the atrocities committed on women and children by a so called civilized society.

Women’s equal dignity and human rights as human beings are recognized by the international community. This is evident from the United Nation’s charter on the endorsement of the equal rights of men and women to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the subsequent International treaties and declarations. It is clearly stated that the protection of the rights of women are Central to our vision of a democratic society. But the fine words of these documents and of the Vienna Declaration in 1993 and the Declaration of Beijing in 1995 stand in sharp contrast to the daily reality of life for millions of women. The majority of world’s refugees are women; female illiteracy is far higher than male illiteracy. Women and girl children are treated as commodities in prostitution rackets and the pornography industry. Women in every country are regular victims of domestic violence. Women’s social and cultural rights continue to be neglected. Gender based inequalities continue to haunt millions of women throughout the world. They live in abject deprivation and attacks against their fundamental human rights for no reason. They suffer from systemic and systematic discrimination which results in deep patterns of inequality and disadvantage. The gender based division of labour with women being primarily responsible for reproduction work and work related to the family, and men for productive work, also contribute to the perpetuation of gender based inequalities.

The gender based inequality is evidently present even in the so called literate society of the west. In the U.S., voting right was won by women after prolonged struggle in 1918, after World War I, but it was limited to women of 30 or above. In England it was not until 1929 that women over 21 achieved the right to vote. Even in the 21st Century it is an undeniable fact that American Voters are not yet ready to accept a woman as their President. It exposes the hypocrisy of a nation that boasts of having liberated women long ago. Even the media, the so called American ‘Free Press’ was indulging in cheap personal attacks against Hillary Clinton.

It is not surprising that the U.S is also in the forefront regarding violence against women. The journal ‘Violence against Women’ reports that from 25 to 31 percent of American Women are being physically or sexually abused by a husband / boyfriend at some point in their lives. Drawing on a survey date the “National Research Council” reports that one in every six US women has at sometime experienced an attempted or completed rape. Annually more than 3 lakhs women are forcibly raped and more than four million are assaulted.

Another crime that violates women’s right to live, is committed during war and during post-war period-namely organized rape. Rape during war appears to have gone through three stages.

1. In ancient times rape was a reward for the victor. The Hebrew Scriptures [OT] describe the rape of the women of conquered tribes as a routine act.

2. In more modern times random rape by soldiers was a common phenomenon, particularly when there was a lack of army discipline.

3. In recent times systematic, organized rape is used as a tactic of war to terrorize the victims. It was a weapon of terror when Germans marched through Belgium in World War I: Gang rape was practiced in the beginning of the Nazi campaigns against Jews. It was used as a weapon of terror when the Japanese raped Chinese women in the city of Nanking during World War II. The Americans made rape in Vietnam “a standard operating procedure aimed at terrorizing the population into submission.”
Sri.Kunhikrishnan: What the Japanese did to the Chinese women is graphically described by Pearl S. Buck in Mother Earth, her Nobel Prize winning Novel.
Prof. Mohanan Nair: Numerous recent cases have also been seen, mostly in religiously motivated wars.

1. 1991-1994 Serbian military and paramilitary troops used rape systematically as a tactic to encourage Bosnian Muslim Women to flee from their land. It was reported in “News Day”, that each night the policemen selected ten or more Muslim women, led them at gun point to some nearby house and raped them.. The site of these crimes known as the Partizan Sports Hall was in the Centre of Foca, a small predominantly Muslim town in Eastern Bosnia. It was then used as a transit facility for women and children about to be deported from the town. But for two months in 1992 it functioned as a rape camp holding fifty women. Partizan was only one of the several rape camps in Bosnia.
2. In 1994 Rwanda Hutu leaders ordered their troops to rape Tutsi women as an integral part of their genocidal campaign.
3. In 1997 secular women were targeted by Muslim revolutionaries in Algeria and reduced to sex slaves.
4. In 1998 Indonesian security forces allegedly raped ethnic Chinese women during a major spate of rioting.

5. In the late 90s Serbian military and paramilitary units systematically raped ethnic Albanian Muslim women during the unrest in Kosovo.

It was Jawharilal Nehru who said “You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women”. So what is the condition of the women in India?. The Indian constitution grants women equal rights with men, but strong patriarchal traditions persist with women’s lives shaped by customs that are centuries old. The origin of the idea of appropriate female behavior can be traced to the rules laid down by Manu in 200 B.C. According to ‘Manusmrithi’, in childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, and in old age to her sons; a woman must never be independent. Accordingly in many Indian families a daughter is viewed as a liability and she is conditioned to believe that she is inferior and subordinate to men. Sons are idolized and celebrated.

In India,
1. Women suffer malnutrition consequent of the inequality between men and women. Hence they are in poor health. Surviving through a normal life cycle is a resources-poor woman’s highest challenge.
2. India’s maternal mortality rates in rural areas are among the highest in the world. This is due to reluctance to seek medical aid during pregnancy.
3. The tasks performed by women are usually those that require them to be in one position for long period of time resulting in premature and still births. (e.g. Rice transplanting in July – August)
4. Women end girls receive far less education than men due to social norms. Consequently girl children are married off at an early age.
5. Women work for more hours than men and their work is more arduous. Still men report that “they like children, eat and do nothing”. This means that their work is rarely recognized. Wherever technology has been introduced in areas where women worked, women laborers have been displaced by men, [ e.g., threshing grain by automatic threshing machines operated by men] thus losing an important source of income.
6. Women are kept subordinate and are even murdered by the practice of dowry. Dowry exists even to day though the Dowry Prohibition Act has been in existence for about half a century. Despite every stigma dowry continues to be the signature of marriage.
7. Maintenance rights of women in the case of divorce are weak. Although the Hindu and Muslim law recognize the rights of women and children to maintenance, in practice it is rarely set at a sufficient amount, and is frequently violated.

And coming to ‘Gods own Country’ we come across shocking realities. Education and employment have not played the transforming role expected of men & women. Gender based violence particularly domestic violence mental health or manifestly increasing suicide and the growth and spread of dowry related crimes compel us to look at family relations in a different way. Some one said that Kerala homes are theatres of violence. Sexual harassment of women by the big and the powerful has become a common thing in Kerala. Sooryanelli, Kiliroor, Kaviyoor, Poovarani, etc are known to everyone in Kerala. And the protagonists Nadar, Kunhalikutty, P.J. Joseph and the latest entry the saint SanthoshMadhavan and a Church Father, are all more familiar to us than popular Film Stars. Partly power or partly fame-o-maniac mothers are responsible for the sex rackets. Bureaucratic laxity due to political interference is another reason for these.
Gender equality is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting development and building up a healthy society. This recognition is currently missing in India. We have to recognize women’s contribution to every aspect of society; in politics, industry, commence, education, agriculture, and at home. Changing the social discrimination against women must be given top priority. Efforts must be made to improve the social and economic status of women. For which women must receive greater education which will help them to earn more money. This they could spend for better education and better health of their children unlike men. As they rise in economic status their social standing will improve Moreover education and economic status will help them to make stronger claims to their entitlement & rights. This will help them to overcome the condition of son preference and thus put an end to dowry. This will encourage families to educate their daughters & the age of marriage will rise. They will be healthier, more productive and give birth to healthier children. Only through action to remedy discrimination against women can the vision of Indians Independence - an India where people have the chance to live healthy & productive, be realized.
Prof. Richard Hay: A recent survey showed that 68% of the women in India are illiterate and hardly earn more than Rs.20 a day. That itself amounts to a violation of Human Rights.
Prof. Sankarankutty: Various aspects of Human Rights have been elaborately presented here. Exploitation of women and children is a sort of practice of slavery. In spite of the UN Declaration of Human Rights as well as the various conventions and treaties, violations continue with immunity. All democratic countries have adopted the declaration. The application of The Declaration has now been an index to measure the efficiency of any Government. Yet even leaders of the democratic countries like U.S. and U.K have been brought to book for violation of Human Rights. The approach of almost every country towards Human Rights is superficial and insincere.
Whether knowingly or unknowingly, we follow certain values in present day life. And there are several forces in which we believe, but which impinge on the rights of others. Capitalism is an example. We believe in the system which we have now adopted. But it affects the rights of many. It is absolutely clear to everyone that child labor is prohibited and is against Human Rights. But in several industries children are employed in order to make profits, or even to survive in a competitive market. People and Govt. close their eyes on this. Children are freely employed in the garment and other industries. We can see them toiling in shops and domestic establishments.
Prof.Mohanan Nair: The latest are the reality shows in which children are made to rehearse the dance and music performances without going to school or college.
Prof. Sankarankutty: That is slightly different. Deep seated human greed is working there. And, as mentioned earlier, ‘Fame o-mania’ as well.
As regards child exploitation, enactment of labor laws and dignity of labor are only on paper. Violations go on deliberately unnoticed by Law. Laws in such cases are mere pretensions.
Almost every day we read about farmers committing suicide. It is not correct to say that they are lured by money lenders into a higher standard of living and thus fall into money traps. Govt. policies and the overall situation are actually responsible for farmers’ suicides. They do not get any safeguard for obtaining a reasonable price for their produces. Finance Minister is supposed to have written off loans. But there is no guarantee that the benefits will reach the real farmer. With the rampant corruption and nepotism nothing reaches the farmer as the people in Govt. themselves often admit. The man who actually till the soil and produce food for you to be alive, is never assured a decent life. He is deprived of a legitimate, dignified existence.
Violation of human rights should not be seen as merely something that is happening to women and children, or tribals etc. The man next door, the farmer who toils on the land to feed the humanity should be protected from penury and suicide. We see so much written in the media about women’s rights, tribal welfare etc., but nothing much about the poor farmers. We do not realize that the whole of farmer communities are suffering and that every 30 minutes a farmer in this country is pushed to the level of killing himself. These are not things which are merely looked at in the academic way quoting statistics. The reality has to be seen
For anything and everything we have to legislate. Problems are supposed to be solved by legislation. But nothing would happen in reality unless the government approaches to the root of the problem in real terms. The need to legislate arises because we are not cultured. A cultured society cannot tolerate a next door neighbor, a man who feeds the society, the farmer, being exploited.
Therefore we can say that Human Rights actually exist only in the beautiful pages of the Declaration. It is only an ideal (Aadarsh) to be talked about. In truth it does not take effect. It is only of decorative value. Human rights or no human rights, the Human Nature persists. The basic human nature thirsts for power. Look at the countries like Myanmar. The dictatorship is afraid even to accept help to its citizens in times of misery like an earthquake. One has to look at the eyes of truth. The human nature has to be therefore tackled to make people more cultured if Human Rights are to be established.

Dr. Sadanandan: The way we live on this earth is far from right, and on the contrary, is terribly wrong. The whole movement is a struggle for existence. In this struggle, on exercising one’s freedom, another’s right for freedom to live is completely ignored.
We are promoting a highly competitive existence. Each and every individual wants to reach on top, somehow or other. And, in the process we are all becoming violent human beings. Violence includes every other bad emotion like jealousy, envy, greed, anger ambition and ill will. Of course there is violence when we compromise, compare and control. In this movement the individual does not bother to consider the rights of another to pursue his interests. This imbalance manifests over the whole of human existence. Conflict is there between individuals, between social groups, between religions, between nations and in all organized human endeavor.
How to contain and overcome this evil should be a major concern of all serious minded people. We do not know what to do. We have invented many forms of control. We have rules. We have legislations. We have constitutions, deals, creeds, laws and punishments. And it is an irony that the executor himself often breeds violence. Should we hope and depend on governments, democratic institutions and leaders to find a solution? Can revolution transform society and human relationship? Can social change effectively transform the individual? Is it that individual is an instrument for social purpose, a puppet in the hands of masters for social cause? Does the individual serve the society or society is for the individual? Relationship between the individual and society should be smooth and harmonious without any problems. Whatever revolutionary, drastic changes are forced on to the society, the society would remain static if no transformation is taking place in the individual. Transformation of the individual may be the only key available to uproot the evil of violence from human relationship.
If the individual is to change or transform, the question would be, how? We live in relationship. My life is depended only upon the fact how I am related to my kith and kin, to the people around, to the society to which I belong, to myself, to the various ideas, to the events in my life, to the situations in life, and to the whole universe. How am I related with each of these, or to all? Is there jealousy? Is there ill will? Is there greed? Is there no concern for the other? Instead, is there competition and cruelty? These are all reflected in the mirror of relationship. Does one use the other for his own pleasures, gratifications and comforts? Do I hurt anyone? Do one’s actions cause inconvenience to others? If I am concerned about this it is imperative that I should be aware of my relationship with others. But we don’t see this. We are not interested. We rather drift fully immersed in our own seclusions.
Is there any other way of relationship? What is missing and what is hindering our relationship from blossoming into goodness and harmony? Why are there no cheer, no happiness and no serenity?
What is love, and where is it hidden? Is there love in any of our relationships at all? How different things would have been if there was love and understanding in our relationships! That could have transformed the whole society and the world, - the only revolution.

Dr.Babu Ravindran: The reason why one should be concerned about Human Rights can be summarized by the statement by Martin Weimuller, Pastor of German Evangelical Church;
“In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a communist. They then came for the Jews, and I did not speak up as I was not a Jew, then they came for the Trade Union, and I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and then they came for me, and by that time there was no one to speak up for any one.”
Advance in technology and changes in the social structure had rendered war a threat to the continued existence of the human race. Large number of people in many countries lived under the control of the tyrants, having no recourse but war to relieve them from often intolerable living conditions. Unless some way was found to relieve the lot of these people, they could revolt and could become a catalyst for another war on a wide scale and probably one that was nuclear. For, perhaps the first time, representatives from majority of Governments in the world came to the conclusion that basic human rights should be protected not only for the sake of the individuals and countries involved, but also to preserve the human race.
That was why Albert Einstein said, ‘I know with what weapons the III rd world war will be fought, but world war IV will be fought with stick and stones.’
The concept of Human Rights has existed under several names in European thought for many centuries. When King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta which mainly enumerates human rights.
In the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe many philosophers proposed the concept of ‘Natural Right’, right belonging to a person by nature and because he was a human being, not by virtue of his citizenship in a particular country or religion or any ethnic group.
In 1700 two revolutions occurred which drew heavily on this concept. In 1776, many of the British colonies in North America proclaimed their independence from British Empire in a document which still stirs feelings and debate, the U.S. Declaration of Independence. i.e.
“ We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.”
In 1787 the people of France overturned their monarchy and established the Free French Republic, out of which came the “Declaration of the Rights of Man”.
But the term ‘Natural Rights’ slowly fell into disfavor. Henry David Thoreau was the first philosopher to use the term ‘Human Rights’, and does so in his treatise ‘Civil Disobedience’. The work influenced great men like Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. It is said that Gandhiji developed his ideas on nonviolent resistance from this work.
Other proponents of human rights were English philosopher John Stuart Mill (Essay on Liberty) and American political theorist Thomas Paine (The Right Of Man).
The middle and late 19th century saw a number of issues take centre stage, which we now consider as human right issues. They are slavery, serfdom, brutal working condition, starvation wages, and child labor. In the United States, a bloody war on slavery came close to destroying a country founded eighty years earlier on the premise that ‘all men are created equal’. Russia freed it’s serfs the year the war began. But neither the emancipated American slaves, nor the freed Russian serfs saw any real degree of freedom or basic rights for many more decades.
For the last part of 19th and the first part of 20th century human right activism remained largely tied to political and religious groups. Then revolutionaries pointed their fingers at the atrocities of Govt. and showed it as proof that their ideology was ideal to end the Govt. abuses.
The labor unions brought about the system of granting workers the right to strike. The women’s rights movement succeeded in gaining for many women the right to vote. National liberation movements in many countries succeeded in driving out Colonial Powers.
In 1961 a group of lawyers, journalists, writers and others, offended at the sentencing of two Portuguese college students to twenty years in prison for having raised their glass in a toast to ‘freedom’ in a bar, formed the ‘Appeal for Amnesty,1961’. The Appeal was announced on May 28th of that year in London Observers Sunday Supplement. The response to the appeal was larger than any one had expected. The Amnesty International and the modern Human Rights movement were both born.
The early years of modern human rights movement were rocky. The Organization dropped Nelson Mandela, a black South African Anti- Apartheid activist in jail at the time, from the list of adopted prisoners on a trumped up charge, because of his endorsing a violent struggle against apartheid.
These concerns led to the formation of different Regional Human Rights Watch-dog groups like the Helsinki Watch in 1978.
Recognition for the Human Rights movement, and the Amnesty International in particular grew during 1970s. Amnesty gained permanent observer status as an NGO at the United Nations. Its press releases received respectful attention. In 1977 it was awarded Nobel Peace Prize for its work. But there were dissents with claims and counter claims that Amnesty was a front organization for Soviet KGB by some and CIA for USA by some others.
The history of Human Rights being such, even now violations of it continue. Only a few countries do not commit human rights violation, according to Amnesty International. In its 2004 report the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, and Costa Rica are the only countries (mappable) that did not violate at least some human rights significantly.
When a Govt. closes a geographical region under its control to journalists, it raises suspicion of human rights violation. Seven regions are currently closed to foreign journalists in the world:
1. Chechnya (Russia)
2. Jaffna (Sri Lanka)
3. Myanmar (Burma)
4. North Korea
5. Papua (Indonesia)
6. Peshawar (Pakistan)
7. Tibet (China)
With the advance of Technology, Medicine, and Human Philosophy, the status quo of human rights thinking is constantly challenged. Certain other human rights are,
1. Water: In Nov.2002 the UN Committee for Economic, Social, & Cultural Rights issued a non-binding covenant affirming that access to water was a human right. It was reaffirmed at the 3rd and 4th World Water Councils in 2003 and 2006. This marks a departure from the conclusions of the 2nd World Water Forum in Hague in 2000 which stated that water was a commodity to be bought and sold, not a right.
2. Fetal Rights: Pro-life people believe that the individual life begins at the moment of conception. So fetus has equal rights as any other person. But some argue that life as an individual begins only at the stage of viability of the fetus.
3. Environmental Rights: Human Rights ultimately require a working eco-system and healthy environment; but the granting of certain rights to individuals may damage these.
4. Future Rights: Future technological advances such as the possibility of mass space travel, advances in medicine and possibility of access to huge amount of information and other such things raise possibilities of new rights.
5.‘Gay Rights’ is a Human Right for the Gays.