subject: Human Rights Under Democracy [print this page] Human Rights Under Democracy Human Rights Under Democracy
Every human being is a perfect being.
- Swami Vivekananda
Powerful citadels; territorial aggrandizement; hard toil; human veneration; subsistence; just socialism and thus emanates a Declaration. The immortality it enjoys in the texts contravenes its pursuit and communes its doctrines to a consensus but altogether takes it to the altar of reverencewhich is within reach to a few privileged ones. Its incompetence in the practicability of its envisaged being has mitigated the proximity of its success. Declaration only instigates the audacious applause of the concerned dignitaries, especially when it is a Universal one. Those who, in desperation and destitution, never come across such things as perceived in such declarations in their lifetime,
On December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by UN General Assembly. Declaration is the stepping stone towards the acknowledgement and realization of the aspired goal. To hold distinguished views of all nations involved in consummate concord, a declaration is a sin qua non. But it ought to be backed by Action. Action that is impartial, unconditional and selfless, impersonate; Action that is work for work's sake and independent from any political, regional, social, religious, ethnic or humanitarian motivation. If and only if there is this requisite preparation and zeal for work then a declaration survives under the lure of political luxury otherwise not. A political declaration is a lie but overt, instead a declaration with one's conscience is true but covert.
Human Rights- those fundamental and inalienable rights which are essential for life as human being; rights possessed by every human being, irrespective of his or her nationality, race, religion, sex, etc. simply because he or she is a human being. And ever since the declaration of human rights, democracy has been justified with justice for some and for many it is justified with prejudice. Under democracy the cause of human rights has flourished and consolidated but the considerate action still remains missing. It proves to be a cumbersome asset to human rights.
To me human rights connote the essentials for the educated, privileged and self-sufficient. Privileged are those who have education and basic means of subsistence. The contemporary times owe liability of non-redress of the omissions done by commissions in the past as if these were there since antiquity. The prying eyes and hearts of millions and millions of human beings are asking for non-burial of to be amendments that were enshrouded by the Gods of Universe, who claim the encore over the little work that has been done. But obscurity never transcendent clarity and transparency, no matter how deep and dark it is, the final word of verdict is Truth. The all prevailing system has made an apt anagram out of the popular saying "To err is human". Mistakenly, it exists in the state it has been for long but genuinely, at present, it is "To (be) human is err". And this seems true for a legion of human beings who pray for only death instead of a death every moment. Not a hint of guilt is felt when celebrations are observed for an iota of work done because to err is human. The all pervading stigmata pour blood out of the destitute human beings every time their plight and suffering is brought in the flood lights of stage from where it simply depicts absurdity to the people who attend the show.
A wave in the ocean must be at the cost of a hollow elsewhere. Democracy is that wave and human rights is the hollow it has created. The strength of cause being masculine enough and the fidelity to it hollow. Rights and duties enshrined in the constitutional texts are for all, but only afew have access to these. In the international human rights instruments, the rights are defined as the right to: life, liberty and security of person; freedom to choose residence; freedom of thought; the right to peaceful assembly; a fair and open trial; equality before the law; not to be subject to torture; vote and to be elected; fair wages and remuneration for equal value; form trade unions; to attain the highest standard of physical and mental health, etc. Alas! Most of the people in developing nations are alien to life (what it is to live). What does "freedom to residence" mean to them when they can't afford food two times a day? Conceded, they enjoy their rights; they are free to think how to subsist; they do or do not assemble, peacefully, in the graveyard; when they commit crime they face a fair and open trail; they are equal before law but not with their fellow beings; they can't be tortured exempting the circumstances created by those who claim such things; they are free to vote and be elected unless they survive; they are subjected to fair wages and remuneration for equal value incase they find a job; they can form trade unions if they are in trade and above all they are free to attain the highest standard of physical and mental health unless they survive by some physical form and mindset. Much has been said about the laudable work done in the realms of human rights, but the journey of human rights resolution is still to find the way out of political intricacies towards its destination and is under par.
Millions and millions of women across the globe are not in a position to clothe their dignity and provide their progeny with sufficient food. And we proudly pronounce human rights awareness drives; organize lectures and public gatherings in the rural areas. Democracy owns the crown of being the best instrument through which freedom of expression is practiced most but the duty of fair action remains absconding.
Like the drowning boy and the philosopher- when the Philosopher was lecturing him the boy cried, "Take me out of the water first"- so our people cry: "We have had lectures enough, societies enough, papers enough; where is the man who will lend us a hand to drag us out? Where is the man who really loves us? Where is the man who has sympathy for us?" Ay, that man is wanted.- Swami Vivekananda
Democracy bestows its inhabitants with freedom and freedom obliges them with conditional inhibitions and limitations. Freedom itself perpetuates slavery; slavery of rules, slavery of code of conduct or living. Does the curious mind of a juvenile understand limitations, obligations and bondages unless he confronts with this freedom? Living beings are born free, freedom makes them slaves. Won't a young cry for milk if his right to demand is confiscated? Will people stop having food daily if their right to physical health is confiscated? Will people stop living if their right to life is confiscated? Will they stop thinking if they have no freedom of thought? Men are intelligent enough. Even before the concept of human rights man has developed societies, constitutions, and institutions. There is no need to reiterate democracy, because there is no place for human rights in dictatorship. Dictatorship crushes humans, what to say of their rights. To clear the clouds of obscurity, here are some citations and rough statistics. We are lecturing those who are starving. Approximately 1.2 billion people suffer from hunger (deficiency of caloriesand protein). Some 2 to 3.5 billion people have micronutrient deficiency (deficiency of vitamins and minerals). Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- lives on less than two dollars a day. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world's countries) is less than the wealth of the world's three richest people combined. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. The developing world now spends 13 U.S dollars on debt repayment for every 1 U.S dollar it receives in grants. A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 2.5 billion people. Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asiaand the pacific. Seven million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis. Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity. The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same as that handed to the poorest 57%. The impact of HIV/.AIDS is rolling back decades of socio-economic growth in developing countries. Around the world, an estimated 5 million people became infected in 2001, 800000 of them children. Without effective treatment and care, they will join the ranks of the more than twenty million people who have already died of AIDS.
Apart from this in South Asia there is huge trafficking and sexual exploitation of people. Sexual exploitation transcendent prostitution, trafficking and pornography and goes beyond these. The sex industry has become a multi-billion dollar global industry. Sexual exploitation of children and youth encompasses half of this industry. This has been promoted by local demand and sex tourism. In Mumbai, there are around 2,700 brothels. India makes roughly Rupees 20 million Indian currency by prostitution every day. Children who have been victims of sexual exploitation suffer severe mental and physical trauma. Physically, children are at high risk of contracting STDs, such as HIV/AIDS and also they become exposed to poor nutrition and hygiene. Psychologically the feelings of low self-esteem, severe guilt and suicidal tendencies persist among them. Despite this dire situation, there is a severe lack of health and social services for victims of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. According to a report published by UNICEF and SAARC, 4500 women and children are smuggled to Pakistan from Bangladesh in one year. According to the same report, 120 to 150 Bangladeshi women are trafficked and sold to brothels or individuals in Pakistan in a month. Most of these women turn to prostitution eventually. Every day over 50 women and children are reported to cross the land borders and an estimated 5000 women are trafficked in the false promises of jobs and marriages. Over 10,000 women have beentrafficked to Lukhnow, Firozabad and other places of India from Chapai Nababganj, a northern district of Bangladesh during the last fifteen years. Traffickers usually find India and Pakistan as route to Middle East and to other countries for trafficking Bangladeshi women and children. It has been known that Bangladesh is also used as a transit point for trafficking in women from Burma to SAARC and other countries. According to one senior executive of International Institute for Human Rights, Environment and Development (INHURED) International around 10,000 Nepali girls are trafficked across the border to India annually and forced into prostitution. From Bangladesh 200,000 girls are trafficked every year to India. And in India itself, girls are trafficked from Madhya Pradesh, Utter Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal and Gujarat to the main cities.
Democracy and human rights have reached an eventual deadlock and in the cobwebs are the cases of bonded labor, child labor, security, health care, female feticide, custodial deaths, violence, murder, mass slaughter, ethnic cleansing, torture, rape, child abuse, deplorable conditions of prisoners, AIDS victims, poverty and scarcity and what not? There is no denying of the audacious work done by the UN and other bodies of their respective nations against the violations of Human Rights. But that simply is not enough. The conditions retrograde with no signs of heal. The problem lies in the stipulated action taken and the solution is to fathom the social, political and economic milieu under which the indigent humans survive.
In India, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) holds its credibility of being upright and impartial in doing its, commendable, job but She being the largest democracy in the world hasn't lived up to the expectations of its inhabitants in terms of retention and safeguarding of human rights. The mass exodus and ethnic cleansing of the aboriginal community of pandits in Kashmir could never made inroads into the compassion and support of governments and media. Even the general masses were segregated from the plight of this ethno-religious group by canards of the escalated media and democratic government. A living embodiment of highest standard of knowledge and philosophy, these people were rendered to literally beg for their just but meager relief and depend on the whims of the officers of relief department appointed by the callous government. On other hand, instead of enlightening the darkened clouds and bringing the truth forth to the larger populace, the media kept on fighting and making scores for the cause of terrorists. And about three hundred thousand odd people who were hounded out of their homeland by the fanatic lunacy and vandalism of the so-called freedom fighters of Kashmir. A prelude it was to the violations of human rights in Kashmir and then the ostensible intentions of the freedom fighters were exposed. After their exodus, the pandits were the most unwelcome to other parts of state and the national capital. The diabolical condition they lived in the aftermath of the continual on slaughter brings vivid memories for those who have vision. The carnage anddenunciation of Hindus in a colossal Hindu majority nation, what to talk about minorities'?
The poor condition of minorities is unveiled in the post-Godhra riots. This is democracy; the Right to expression is exploited to unprecedented heights but Right against Exploitation? Hardly anything is being done.
A reveille is inviting with open arms to be embraced before it succumbs to death in the day's noise. A pristine vow is to be made in the fresh and cool dawn of yet to be proclaimed revolution before the trite rays of lethargy overshadows us. We, the youth, have to begin this revolution challenging the credentials of fault and intimidating inaction; desist to cow before the political juggernaut and come out with flying colors of social, political and economical equality and prosperity. Not that a battle has to be fought in the political arena with all our acumen completely denying our work as it may be justice to one but injustice to others. But being at our respective positions and places, we shall contribute our action, however little it may be, not to the cause but to the effect of Human Rights. An action plan is wanted to achieve this. Although the repealing of the concept of human rights is inexpedient. I still argue for its reconsideration as the very concept of rights connotes inequality. Being on the safe side we can incorporate some more essentials to augment the proper utilization of human rights.
Firstly, a Right to Human Rights must be introduced. The concept of human rights should be within easy access to every individual. Every individual ought to know about these and even before a child could learn how to play he should be able to recognize his human rights. For this education is a must; education is a right of a human being. The human rights and their declaration being universal, isn't it that their scope should also transcendent the limits of borders and should be universal? Free education should be provided for those who are economically and socially backward through institutions run by the UN. These people should be provided the opportunity to study anywhere in the world by means of these institutions. For universality we have to forget nationality. The developing countries with the co-operation and help of developed nations like U.S., U.K. should perpetuate the plan of such institutions all over the world and the UN leading the path, acting as the director and policy maker. Millions in number these institutions should not only provide free education but also earned meal. Equal status means raising self-confidence, maintaining dignity and pride in oneself. A free meal could play adverse to such things, thus earned meal has to be provided. That means employment and job is to be provided and simultaneously education is to be imparted. They are to be helped first to regain their physical strength and then their labour is to be used to build their future in terms of theseinstitutions. This labour is their employment; in this they will make their own destiny andearn their food and some basic amenities as emoluments. Education as well as vocationaltraining must be imparted to these people so that they learn to earn their living and in theway they can make some things like pieces of art and craft to sell in the world markets. Thus,a small industry will be set in the institutions itself by some efforts only. For children formaleducation up to college level must be provided. It is inevitable that top class graduates andhuman beings will come out of such institutions. These shall pervade in the society like aplague or an epidemic and bring growth and revolution that brings prosperity and justice.
Secondly, there should be Right to Food and Safe Drinking Water. Announce that no human being is entitled to enjoy food and health if his fellow human in the vicinity is dying for want of food and water. It should be made that no human beings are left to cook roots of wild plant to feed their children and face disease and malnutrition. So, public representatives in democracy should encircle the poorest areas in their constituencies to take the immediate action against starvation and malnutrition. Tribes in many developing nations suffer from such problems. There is no need for anyone to starve to death when food grains are eaten by rodents in the storage. Such should be the effect of right to food that if any individual in any part of any world is starving lie/she shall be immediately looked after and taken care of. At least nobody would die in scarcity of food. Also, safe drinking water should be provided to every part where there is population. Every year millions of people die because of non availability of water or availability of unhygienic drinking water. Such a grave situation ought to be avoided in future.
Thirdly, there should be Right to Love, Care, Hospitality and Medicine. Beggaryshould be completely eliminated from the society. Poor people should have free access to medical care. Beggars should be given proper treatment and love and every person should be given a job according to his/her mental and physical prowess. Those who are socially neglected like drug abusers, AIDS patients, cancer patients and many like them must be given love and affection so as to make rest of their life beautiful.
Atrocities on women in urban as well as in rural areas have to be better dealt withmost stringent laws and punishment. However, the urban women is independent, educated andmodern, she knows her rights but altogether it is also correct that women are afraid to comeforward against the system. The situation is not so grave; there have been instances wherewomen have raised her voices against the injustice done to them. For the rural women theconditions are appalling and they are bound by hundreds of obligations and restrictions. Alsotheir aspirations and voices are deterred by the obscurantist village men. The injustice done toa poor women is not the job of a single person or so a group but of whole village. It has been rightly said that it takes a village to make a prostitute. The self-proclaimed authorities of the villages violate laws and human rights more often as per their inclination to pleasure. In India it has been noticed that the panchayats in the villages are also not out of the clutches ofcorruption as the rapacious tendencies of the village heads are not satiated by simplicity sothey rape the power they are vested with. Thus, the panchayat raj has proved to be a completefiasco in curbing violence against women in most of the Indian villages. The problem lies inthe adamant nature of the village heads. Even there are cases when the government authoritiesget to know about the incidents after a month of their happenings. And women who dare tocomplain about any misconduct have to face social isolation, denouncement and faux pas.
In urban areas also rape and molestation has become order of the day. Nothing incongruous seems about these. Nobody is unaware of the recent spree of rapes in the National Capital of India in the past few months. What should be done about such things? For this a complaint department ought to be established. It should be a branch or cell of the police department itself and should be headed by the Chief Executive or political head of the state (nation). Various complain boxes should be set in temples, mosques, churches and other religious places and in every government office in the villages as well as in cities. These should be under the direct supervision of top bureaucrats and police officers in the areas concerned. Furthermore, this complaint department must have connectivity with the internet so that complaints against the police officials and other government officials should be made without any fear. The red-tapes of the government have to be removed in this regard. Also the local NGO's should have a direct check on the complaints coming in the department. Transparency should be the framework of this department.
Democratic countries that are really the focus of human rights scrutiny are in fact guilty of serious human rights violations in their prisons. New York, April 19, 2001, a grooms-oraxmg new report by Human Rights Watch, No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons, charges that state authorities are responsible for widespread prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in U.S. men's prisons. Sao Paulo, April 10, 2003, children in Northern Brazil are routinely beaten by police and detained in abusive conditions, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released. In India, the misuse of the powers by men in uniform culminates in large scale custodial deaths, unlawful detention, fake encounters and what not? A political, diplomatic and executive check of such incidents is a must and in no case shall guilty go unpunished. For this people friendly police should be established. Proper training, educational and moral workshops should be held for the force timely with proper intervals. The recruitment to the force should be largely based on the moral character, affinity and inclination of the candidates towards the service of general masses. The image of police should be bettered and weight shedding in terms of heavy duty and stress should be done.
There should be entertainment and amusement for police personnel time after time and thereshould be adequate man power in the force. Thus, police force has to be made a moral forceinstead of tyrant force. The last two decades have seen the proliferation of arms and nuclear weapons which poses a serious threat to human rights and world peace. Though there can be no do jure excuse for war but democracy has not complained most of the times. A nation may be democratic indigenously but in actual practice unless democracy encompasses the whole universe it will never attain the ultimate recognition of human rights as whole. The monstrous propaganda of war launched by those nations who claim to be the rescuers of human rights and democracy is absurd. All other democratic nations of the world should join hands against the sinister designs of such nations.
Media has a noteworthy role to play in the restoration of human rights. Only media can reach to people of far off places and bring truth to the lights of social justice. Both electronic as well as print media has to accept their social responsibility rising above the sub standard intentions of monetary gains only. It is through these that the authorities can be pressurized to take appropriate action against any misconduct and jeopardize the scope of faults in machinery. Also the gruesome situations of absence of human rights in times of famine, floods, earthquakes, war etc. can be better dealt with an alert and impartial media at the service of people.
Last but not the least, there should be a Right to Growth. Every individual, community, ethnic group etc. should be brought forward and helped to grow. There should be easy access to all facilities provided by the government and right to know about the fast emerging technologies emanating every minute. Telephone, post, roads, transportation and other basic amenities should be provided to every place even though it may be in jungle. Thus, we don't have to be ashamed that when we are celebrating the luxuries in 21 s` century our fellow beings don't know how the world looks outside their woods.
But in our mission of betterment of the world we must not forget that the only thing we can do for our fellow beings is to show them the way, they will rind their destination themselves because every human being is a perfect being. Such steps will herald the growth of a new world that is socially just, equal and consistent. The concept of human rights should run in the nerves of the society with its blood making it potentially perennial and helping it to grow a new zest and vitality. The essence of human rights should flow with the air surrounding this system filling it with fragrance of dignity and hospitality for human kind. Unless the concept of human rights percolates in the roots of the society nothing right can be expected. Unless the human beings start regarding their fellow beings as their own soul mates; unless there is great regard for human existence; unless there is profound gratitude for life there can be no fool proof solution of the problem of violations of human rights. The action for the restoration of peace and establishment of human rights should be louder than the words. We can only taste success if the fault fails before the determination of will otherwise not. So, no celebrations till we achieve the perceived goal. Work should be done in the cover of silence and its sweet fruits will be evident in thebrightness. To quote a part of the most intellectual ideas by Swami Vivekananda, "Like thedew that falls unseen and unheard, yet bringing into bloom masses of roses". We should work in this way only.
