The horrors of the Second World War shook the entire world! Besides thousands of precious lives lost, the world witnessed perhaps the most gruesome violation of human rights during the time. In a way the war was a wake up call for the entire world. In 1945, the founding member nations of the then newly formed United Nations came together to draft many radical laws to protect and promote the basic human rights of its citizens. In three years time, in 1948, the combined efforts of these nations paid off when the United Nations General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” declaring that respect for human rights and human dignity "is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." Soon in 1950, the U.N invited all member States and interested organisations across the globe to observe 10th of December every year as World Human Rights Day.
Last year, 2008, marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The theme of the campaign was “Dignity and justice for all of us.” In commemoration of this eventful year, the UN launched a year long campaign during which all parts of its family reinforced the vision of the Declaration as a commitment to universal dignity and justice and not something that should be viewed as a luxury or a wish-list.
The World Human Rights Day is celebrated with gusto in New York City, the headquarters of the UN and across the world. The day is marked by high-level political conferences and meetings and cultural events and exhibitions with focus on human rights issues. More importantly, it is on this Day that the five-yearly UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights and the coveted Noble Peace Prize are awarded.
What are human rights?
According to the UN, human rights are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible rights inherent to all human beings without discrimination and irrespective of our nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination.
The concept of human rights has many faces. Civil and political human rights is the right to life, and equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights are rights such as the right to work, social security and education, and collective rights are the rights to development and self-determination.
Treaties and laws to enforce human rights
All governments across the world countries are obliged to express, guarantee and uphold the basic human rights in all its faces by means of laws in the forms of treaties, customary international laws, general principles and other sources of international laws.
While the core of the Universal Declaration has continued to remain the same that of protecting human rights wherever their violations occur, the social, political, economic and cultural changes over the years has created the need to have a flexible whole new network of human rights instruments and mechanisms in place which is now being recognised and developed to enforce the objective. For instance, in the wake of the economic downturn faced by many of the world countries today, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has been holding conventions and meetings to explore the human rights violations on already marginalised populations in many member countries. It has urged the countries to do everything possible to ensure that the current recession does not affect the rights to work, housing, food, health, education and social security.
Similar conventions are on to assess the human rights scenario due to climatic changes, political coups, water and sanitation issues, conventions to protect the rights of the racism victims, of the disabled, of the victims of torture, of people suffering from poverty and many other such issues.
Human Rights in India
Though the human rights issue in India has improved a lot since independence in 1947, a lot remains to be done. India is one of the founder members of the United Nations and given this status India should have scored better in human rights issues, civil and political, economic, social and cultural and rights against discrimination, but the fact is it has not.
In its annual report on “The State of Human Rights in India – 2008” the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has pointed out, debated, and discussed how India has fared in some aspects of the civil and political rights such as right to fair trial without delay, rights concerning torture, bonded labour, and freedom of religion; economic, social and cultural rights like land rights, right to food, and rights against discrimination mostly the caste based discrimination, the internal security of the country, and equal status to women. The report points out that the apathy and ineptitude of the law enforcement agencies at district, state, and national levels has been one of the main reasons for some of these human rights violations still being prevalent in India.
Custodial torture
On the widespread use of torture in India, the report has pulled up the bad policing in the country and also the lack of interest on the part of the government in protecting, promoting and fulfilling human rights. The use of torture as the easiest way of investigation has created a distance between the law enforcement agencies and the ordinary people.
Bonded Labour
India is one of the founding members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Despite this and the country introducing the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and legislating many other domestic laws concerning wages and working conditions, it is a fact that bonded labour is still practised in India.
With 70 percent of the population living in rural areas and 35 percent of them in appalling circumstances, the poor people borrow money from the rich in order to meet their everyday basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter. Unable to pay off the debt and coupled with the widespread caste based discrimination in practice these poor people end up as bonded labourers. Here again the various law enforcement agencies have turned a blind eye to the problem.
Freedom of religion
Being a fundamental right in the country, religious freedom is an individual choice. Sadly, it is not so! Today, the scenario is such that the religion determines the security and liberty of a person. Religious violence unleashed in the name of politics, and moral policing is widespread in India. Religion has been misused to jeopardise the right to education, to health, to sanitation and even the right to vote. And the recent terrorist attacks in the country have also spelt danger for some minority communities. The government through its law enforcement agencies has to secure the liberty and rights of individuals. The media too has an effective role to play and not just confine to filming these atrocities on print and electronic media.
The right to fair trial without delay
It is the constitutional obligation of the law enforcement machinery in India including the judiciary system to ensure that lethargy on the part of the police, the state or the centre or administrative inability or financial constraints does not delay the justice. We have been witnessing quite a lot of cases pending at the court due to one or several of these reasons and the time to time observation and condemnation of the Supreme Court of India on the need for the speedy disposal of pending cases. After all, justice delayed is justice denied! The State and the Centre should look into the drawbacks of this kind and fix it at the earliest.
Right to food, education and health
In a country that is self-sufficient in food production and with substantial food reserves, the basic right to food has not been met. The rights to education and health face similar fate in India. Almost 22 percent of the population still live in deplorable conditions due to acute poverty and hence cannot afford to enjoy the basic rights to nutritious food, quality education and health services. Despite the Ministry of Food’s initiatives like the public distribution system, midday meals scheme, government sponsored hospitals, and various other methods in place, a section of the society still do not benefit from it.
The reasons are visible and many: Corruption, caste based discrimination, gender inequality, the indifferent attitude of the various law enforcement agencies including police, courts and administrative neglect, trade barriers and the bottlenecks in internal security and the lack of will on the part of those in responsible positions continue to play havoc on the human rights scenario in the country!
Till all these problems are effectively addressed at the earliest, celebrating the World Human Rights Day will mean nothing! Educating the children and youth on the human rights issue is important. It is a welcome gesture as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will launch Human Rights Education as a separate subject at the 10+2 level from 2010-11 academic sessions. This will give the children an opportunity to understand, analyse the existing human rights scenario in the country and work towards its betterment.
What you could do!
The UN has outlined the many ways through which the World Human Rights Day could be used an opportunity to create and raise an awareness of the human rights and help protect your community and beyond. Simple campaigns like distribution of hand notes on human rights or as SMS messages to mobiles, or organising a meeting about human rights issues in your neighbourhood or publicising the efforts of real-life stories of people vying to get their basic human rights, or submitting petitions to support the rights of a group in your area, all these could go a long way in making the World Human Rights Day celebrations a meaningful one. However, the big change has to come from the government! And we, as responsible citizens have a right to demand this change! It is time for each one of us to speak up for those whose basic human rights are violated. The change has to start today and now.
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