The Tides of Human Rights

Today our world is experiencing chaos, but not more so than in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. At least we are not burning witches or massacring indigenous Hopi, Pequots, Sioux and Tainos, the slave trade is abolished, colonialism is drastically reduced. We have seen a phenomenal codification of legal norms, the UN Charter, the UDHR, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the establishment of regional human rights courts. We hail the growing recognition of the rights of half the population of the planet – women, the measures taken on behalf of persons with disabilities. We welcome the entry into force in January 2021 of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Declaration of October 2021 by the Human Rights Council recognizing the Environment as a Human Right.  While we deplore the continued practice of torture in some countries, we express relief over its universal condemnation, and the gradual abolition of the aberration of “capital punishment”.

On the other hand,  we must admit that there is significant retrogression in many fields, including the erosion of the concept of Peace as a Human Right, the backsliding from General Assembly Resolution 39/11 of 12 November 1984, the unwillingness of belligerents to talk with each other.  We deplore the scourge of 25 million victims of human trafficking, including 3.4 million children. We denounce the escalation of urban violence and mass-killings, the rise of international terrorism.

Today there is scarce protection of the democratic right to know, the right to access information, the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We see censorship by governments and the private sector, arbitrariness in Facebook and YouTube, the blocking of news services including RT, Sputnik and Tass in EU countries, the Orwellian new Digital Services Act, the brazen indoctrination practiced by the media, the excesses of “cancel culture”, the epidemic of self-censorship, the social acceptance of Russophobia and Sinophobia, the weaponization of sports so that sportswomen and men can be banned from competition merely on account of their nationalities.

Serious retrogression becomes evident in the weakened protection of privacy, family life and family values, the concerted attacks on the concept of the family and parental authority, the denigration and ridicule of religious beliefs.

Retrogression is apparent in the practices of institutions established to protect our rights. Many institutions have been hijacked for geopolitical and ideological purposes. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Iuvenalis, 6th Satire), who guards over the guardians? Crucial institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council, ECHR, IACHR, OPCW are betraying their mandates, instrumentalizing human rights for purposes of geopolitical confrontation, instead of devising preventive strategies and mechanisms to secure human dignity.

Only we can be the guardians! While we realize that governments lie to us on a daily basis, we must push back and reclaim democracy. We do not need any Ministry of Truth as in 1984. Alas, we are already in the dystopia of Huxley’s Brave New World.

Among the gravest instances of retrogression is the obsession with punishment, that self-righteousness that invites us to lapidate the adulteress (John VIII, 1-11), the arrogance of “lawfare”, both in domestic and international affairs. If Christianity taught us anything, it is that we must forgive to be forgiven: et dimite nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimitimus debitoribus nostris. Alas, the mainstream ngo’s – with the complicity of the media — have transformed the concept of “amnesty” into a curse word. Yet, amnesties are not bad per se. Sometimes amnesties pave the way to reconciliation. Article 6 of the Second Additional Protocol of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions stipulates “the authorities in power shall endeavour to grant the broadest possible amnesty to persons who have participated in the armed conflict”.  Article 2 of the Peace of Westphalia stipulates “there shall be on the one side and the other a perpetual Oblivion, Amnesty, or Pardon of all that has been committed since the beginning of these Troubles, in what place, or what manner soever the Hostilities have been practiced, in such a manner, that nobody, under any pretext whatsoever, shall practice any Acts of Hostility, entertain any Enmity, or cause any Trouble to each other other… but that all that has passed on the one side, and the other, as well before as during the War, in Words, Writings, and Outrageous Actions, in Violences, Hostilities, Damages and Expenses, without any respect to Persons or Things, shall be entirely abolished in such a manner that all that might be demanded of, or pretended to, by each other on that behalf, shall be buried in eternal Oblivion.”

We are told that the International Criminal Court represents progress.  Some, however, consider it a significant step back to the primitive age of the law of revenge, lex talionis. Indeed, vengeance is incompatible with the acquis of civilization. Punishment is hardly a civilized answer to problems. Education, conflict-prevention, good faith, mutual respect and international solidarity are. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 75 years ago at the Palais Chaillot in Paris, was indeed a high point in the tide of human rights. Hitherto we have failed to implement its provisions, particularly article 28: “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized”. That remains our challenge.