Human Rights

10 December: Human Rights

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10 DECEMBER: HUMAN RIGHTS DAY MORE CHALLENGES - LESS RESPONSE !

At the outset of the new Millennium, the world is witnessing evidence that suggest hopes for a meaningful implementation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) have been overlooked. The multiple violations of these rights tend to tarnish the image of the United Nations as a sanctuary of virtues of humankind.

As we mark this day the anniversary of the UDHR, more cases of such violations are being committed worldwide. AAPSO would like to draw the attention of the international community on the danger that threatens the very life of the whole humanity.

Owing to the failure of the world to cope with the growing deterioration of human rights situation, it is demonstrated that a number of provisions enshrined in the UDHR have turned out to be below expectations.

Many aspects of manifestation of human rights violations are being observed everywhere. What is happening in the Middle East in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a serious breach of internationally recognized rights by the racist, zionist regime against the Palestinian people, causing more deaths, more destruction, more sufferings. Using pretext of combating terrorism, the Israeli racist regime continues to carry out the policy of State terrorism coupled with practice of double standards backed by the sole superpower.The so-called coalition against terrorism turned out to be a terrorization of the world, giving the green light to perpetrators of excessive human rights abuses.

Realities regarding the question of human rights could be indicated by facts which greatly affect the lives of populations mainly in the developing countries. Forced labour, child labour, child prostitution, sexual harassements and abuses, human trafficking are common practices in every corner...The reality of our time has demonstrated, for example, that the process of globalization contains elements of what is called now modern slavery, which in its nature doesn't differ from the ancient, be it overt or covert. Many countries from developed to underdeveloped are currently the theatres of slavery acts.

This same globalisation has aggravated the state of illiteracy and sanitation in the developing countries. Owing to the increasing polarization of populations, mass poverty, diseases and malnutrition, a growing number of people are denied access to fundamental education and decent sanitation. The situation in Africa is a reflexion of what happens in the other underdeveloped countries. Although 17 million more African children are in school today than a decade ago, 42 million have never been in school, out of 113 million worldwide, according to UNESCO. Now, the challenge of education for all is becoming the greatest one. Access to safe water and affordable drugs against infectious diseases like AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, is another big challenge for the developing countries. Financing programmes related to these issues is almost impossible for these countries. If in 2001, low developped countries (LDC) generated 7 billion dollar for health care, domestic resources for health would have to increase to $11 billion annually by 2007 and to $16 billion by 2015. Abject poverty, mismanagement and collapsed infrastructure make it impossible to deliver effective health care in the poorest countries and to reach this target of financing. Not to mention the commercialisation of education and health triggered by corruption and race to immediate profit by irresponsible individuals or hidden corporations. Developing countries should have the right to produce generic drugs by compusory licensing to meet their needs.

In this very beginning of new century, the practice of torture as means to extract confession remains as barbaric, humiliating and repressive as it was once before. Torture is not only physical. In many occasions torture gets moral and psychological which would lead to mental disturbance. In addition to torture, the use of summary executions is practicised in defiance of all equitable justice. Mysterious disappearance of detained persons, discrimination with respect to race, sex, religion and ethnicity are frequent. Worst still, high ranking officials in some countries are implicitly or explicitly involved in amassing the wealth of their countries, increasing the dimension reached by the poverty situation, misery and starvation, furthering large scale globalized corruption. In many circumstances social and political position are used to influence courts and judges, resorting to threats, blackmail or carrying out repressive operations and rape, inciting xenophobia and intolerance.
Minority people should deserve due attention by international community. The aggravation of their political, economic and social situation in many parts of the world has raised more concerns.

Working children remains a plague of our time, characterising the daily life in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is sad to note that Africa has a world record in this regard: 41% of African children work, as compared to 21% in Asia and 17% in Latin America The issue of child trafficking is also of great preoccupations..Child traffickers commit abominable crimes in breach of the most basic children's rights as the latter are sold or exchanged through good bargains, can be sacrificed and easy to train under dire conditions forcing them to commit exactions, to kill, or to terrorize. All these practices seem to have unlimited bounds.

Being the cause of backwardness of the people in developing countries, the debt question resulting from the stubborn policy of international financial institutions has become an eternal harassement for them. Poverty and misery help this debt to hold entire populations and generations hostage for many years. The right to developpment has thus turned out to be empty word.

More alarming facts have revealed that civil wars, conflicts and many kinds of confrontations, be them inter-ethnic or inter-religious as it is happening mostly in Africa, do not spare innocent people including the vulnerable ones, children, women and elders, from gross violations of human rights. In many theatres of conflicts, armies, militias, guerillas and rebels commit massacres, undertake summary executions, carry out looting and plundering of national riches and natural resource which these countries need for their development. Arms acquisition has sapped resources which could have been utilized to combat poverty. The proliferation of arms, mainly small arms, generates violence which in turn can likely lead to terrorist acts. As a result of conflicts and civil wars, the number of refugees and displaced persons has kept growing. This situation constitutes a major setback for the development, security and stability of countries and has created a propitious terrain for the propagation and dissemination of diseases like AIDS which has already claimed the lives of 3 million people this year alone with 42 million worldwide infected by HIV/AIDS. Africa is the most hit with 30 million, and more than 2 million deaths this same year. It is likely that the globalization aggravates the scale of these facts as well as the consequent disparity caused by the polarization of the world population. The human rights issue arises with force because this globalization has given birth to poverty and seems to have created the "right to poverty" breaking the lives of entire populations.

The world is aware of the superpower deliberately ignoring or refusing to ratify international Covenants on human rights, be it on that related to women, children, environment or on other provisions of United Nations instruments of human rights, while this superpower continues relentlessly to lecture the world people about human rights, democracy and governance. This erode the credibility of international organizations like the UN in adressing these rights in general. The inadmissibility of such conduct lies on the fact that impunity and the state of being above international laws is a means to impose will and whims over the people in the world. In this context, the danger may loom for the UN to become a subservient instrument of the global politics of one superpower.

Under all circumstances, the role and responsibility of the United Nations should be reinforced . The international community should make rigorous condemnation against any abhorrent, reprehensible and loathsome pratices regarding respect of human rights.

Before all these challenges, the response from the world community lamentably lacks the necessary energy to cope with all breaches about respect of human rights and fundamental freedom. That doesn't mean that improvement observed in many fields of human rights problems will be underestimated. But the danger is ahead if laxity prevails.

The globalization of the world system revealed another aspect of international relations. It is overwhelmingly in favour of those who wield superiority in science and technology who are tempted to exercise their potentialities over those lacking it.

Taking into account the diverse interpretations of the provisions of human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, AAPSO suggests that these provisions should be considered as reference basis to values, cultures and other specificities manifested in the world. That is one of the challenges of the Twenty-first century in the regime of human rights. It is hoped that the positive aspects of the globalization, many of which are yet expected to be discovered and exploited for the sake of marginalised and poor countries, could lead to needed improvement in many domains of human lives..

AAPSO calls for more efforts to be deployed in eradicating the roots of breaches related to respect of human rights. Legitimate struggle for political liberation and freedom from the yoke of colonialism, racism or fascist-minded criminal acts, be it in Middle East, in the large of Oceans or everywhere in the planet, against perpetrators and abusers of human rights, against all forms of racial discrimination, should be the object of sustaining, strong support.

AAPSO also suggests that the United Nations agencies or commissions, civil society and NGOs as well as the International Criminal Court and all institutions dealing with human rights should, being safe from any hegemonic influence, play a role in coping with all crimes related to human rights, the organized crimes, international criminal networks, terrorism and other maffias, taking these issues among their priorities. The people in the world need peace and stability, development and progress. Time is ripe to take effective action.