Human Rights Human Wrongs

In the Scale of Human Conscience

Shambhu Ram Simkhada

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367701949
• eBook ISBN: 9781000343465
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the best gift of the United Nations and its main human rights organ, the Human Rights Commission to "We, the Peoples of the World". But that powerful instrument is often rendered powerless by the behaviour of individuals running the institutions and the states, arguably the most powerful institution conceptualised by human mind so far. In the process, the UN comes under serious criticism and its most important organ which helped give the UDHR was dissolved for "failing to live up to its ideals". Ironically, the same states and their representatives most instrumental in creating the UN institutions, including the Human Rights Commission first but later vilifying it and leading the campaign for its replacement by the Human Rights Council are now once again attacking it as "hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights" and the most powerful member state feels compelled to walk out of the Council. Where does the world, the UN and "we the peoples" stand in the search for greater freedom from want and fear, better enjoyment of dignity and rights?
Travelling through an extraordinary journey of life, academic pursuits and expeditions of professional and diplomatic mountain climbing, including the Chairmanship of the 56th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights and its 5th Special Session on the Human Rights of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestine Territories, Shambhu Ram Simkhada presents a scholarly, diplomatic, advocate and defender perspectives on the contemporary state of human rights and human wrongs in the scale of his own human conscience.

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1
Introduction

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting.

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

………

Yours, is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And, which is more-you’ll be a Man…

—Rudyard Kipling

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.¹

1 Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Human Rights a Compilation of International Instruments Vol. I (First Part) Universal Instruments, OHCHR, United Nations, p. 2 included in Annex (see pp. 147–148).

Driven by the innate desire for freedom and equality, dignity and rights, in the 20th century, humanity has made remarkable progress in politics and economics, science and technology, health and education, art and architecture. Amidst this progress, however, untold numbers of people have perished in wars, persecution, the Holocaust, genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity; many still live in destitution, disease, ignorance and injustice. Tremendous transformation in science and technology has led to the death of distance, bringing people closer together, but racial prejudice, religious fundamentalism, ideological extremism, digital divide and inequality of wealth and opportunities are creating greater disparities, discord and despair within and among societies. Human ingenuity and perseverance has resulted in impressive economic growth and social progress. But, death, destruction and destitution caused by a large number of violent conflicts or pandemics such as HIV-AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other killer diseases threaten progress in health, education, art, architecture and infrastructure for economic growth, social and political developments painstakingly achieved over many years, decades and even centuries in several parts of the world.

The end of the 20th century was marked by momentous events like the fall of the Berlin Wall. But many other “walls” remain and new ones are in the making. The end of the Cold War could have ushered in a new era of international peace and prosperity. But, it has been replaced by many other “wars” and sections of the human family continue to endure unimaginable poverty, hunger, disease, desperation and death. Developments in science and technology, knowledge and knowhow have gone so far that there is talk of creating a new human. In terms of potential, we live in exciting times. But, compare these developments with the lives of those living in destitution and persecution, suffering from extreme poverty, violence, ignorance, disease, facing discrimination because they are of a different colour, from a different region, killed because they are of different ethnicity, religion, belief, class or caste, and is it not a sad commentary on human wisdom?

As humanity celebrated the end of the Second and entered the Third Millennium, the world witnessed the unimaginable tragedy of 11 September, one of the most horrendous acts of man’s inhumanity to man. How could pursuits of knowledge and knowhow, education and training, not to live and develop but to kill and be killed, be acts of faith? Killing yourself with the deliberate intent to kill other innocent fellow human beings can only be an act of complete faithlessness in self, in humanity and in God. This is the new war of the 21st century, man’s war with himself, society and the world. This war affects every nation, every society and every individual, and it can only be fought together.

11 September was a stark reminder that in a globalised world, with unlimited access to knowledge and knowhow, not just the power of the states, but even non-state actors, groups or individuals from one part of the world could hurt so many from another. In a tragic way, it was a stark reminder of our common humanity. 9–11 was a clear manifestation of the evil in human beings, underlining the need to overpower it by the good inherent in all. How to unleash the good and suppress the evil inherent in each individual so that the tremendous power that every human being possesses innately and is now capable of enhancing through knowledge and knowhow can be used only for the good of all human beings?

At the Crossroads of Time

At the dawn of the new century, the new millennium, humanity stands at the crossroads of time—with the potential of unleashing the power of creativity for an ever unseen peace and prosperity for all, or falling into the quagmire of conflict and chaos in which ultimately everyone suffers. In a global village, with increasing access to knowledge and knowhow, information, communication and transportation, it is difficult to imagine how a section of the human family can continue to prosper in peace while others are deep in distress, destitution and despair, caught in conflict and violence within countries as well as across international borders. The flow of migrants and refugees, many often risking their lives just to get away from the land they are born and brought up in, demonstrates the spillover effects of conflicts and violence, and the disparities in progress and opportunities. An Indian scholar once wrote, “Man’s happiness lies in living on the strength of his illusions”.² If not illusion, what else could one call the act of decorating the living room while the house is on fire?³ Society must create the environment for the intelligent and the diligent to prosper and excel. But, islands of prosperity must expand to include the ocean of denial and deprivation. 9–11, 2001, in which so many people from so many countries died in a single act of terror and the Asian tsunami at the end of 2004⁴ in which so many people from so many nationalities perished in a single event of the fury of nature, both demonstrate, in different ways, the common humanity of the new age.

2 Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 12.

3 With rapid globalisation, I characterise the world as a house, with individual countries as living rooms.

4 A massive tsunami tidal wave, triggered by an under ocean earthquake near the island of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean at the end of December 2004, is estimated to have killed close to 300,000 people of 50 nationalities around the world. It affected 12 countries in the Indian Ocean Region.

Amidst the paradox of unprecedented peace, progress, safety and security on one side, and denial, deprivation, illiteracy, ignorance, ill-health, growing natural disasters, intolerance, destruction of innocent lives and struggling livelihoods on the other, as one reflects deeper, one wonders: how to persuade those who feel the pain of injustice and seek redressal of their grievances, to pursue their objectives peacefully? How to convince those blinded by ignorance and arrogance, paralysed by power and prejudice and refusing to see the injustice in their actions, to change their behaviour of imposing their unjust acts through violence? What will happen to the global village of increasingly empowered individuals and states if violence becomes the only available means to redress as well as to suppress? A new mindset, a new culture consistent with the dynamics of time and technology is essential.

The world was reminded by one Nobel Laureate in a seminar recently, “Germany in the 1930s was a modern society on the cutting edge of technological advancement and cultural achievement, yet it was that society that had sought to exterminate Jews from the face of the earth”.⁵ Speaking in the same programme, another Nobel Peace Laureate cautioned everyone on how hatred in the minds of men had been the cause of the most serious crime against humanity in the 20th century.⁶ If current pockets of hatred and hopelessness are allowed to grow and spread, what is the guarantee that humanity will not see many more crimes in the future like the ones it has witnessed in the past and is witnessing at present? Reminding her audience of the atrocities of the past century and the level to which humanity can stoop, Cherie Booth Blair lamented, “Indeed, it appears we are doomed to repeat history”.⁷ Even in this new age of unlimited access to knowledge and knowhow, is the human mind so feeble that the wrongs of history must repeat themselves over and over? What then, is the real meaning of so much education and learning?

5 UN Press Release HR/4773 PI/1589, p. 3.

6 Ibid., p. 4.

7 The Impact of the International Criminal Court in Strengthening Worldwide Respect for Human Rights: Paper presented by Cherie Booth Blair, at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, 1 July 2004.

It is unlikely that man will ever live in a Ram Rajya, where everyone is fully content, living in total peace, justice and happiness. In a world of increasing populations, depleting resources, growing aspirations, unlimited wants and needs but limited means and capacity to fulfil them, there will always be dissatisfaction and grievances. There will be problems even within the family. The questions to reflect upon are: what will happen to the family if children start seeking to redress their grievances, and parents try to suppress them through violence? What will happen to the state institutions if citizens start seeking to redress their grievances, and governments seek to suppress them through violence? What will happen to the global village if states start using violence to seek redress or to settle disputes with other states? When it is difficult to change even one household without dialogue and persuasion, how can the flames of hatred and hopelessness, greed and grievance, conflict, violence and violations engulfing so many parts of the world be doused through force? Use of force may be unavoidable to free some peoples and societies from terror and tyranny. But, changing hearts and minds, a strategy of mitigating hate and hopelessness can be the only long-term solutions. To keep pace with the dynamics of time and technology, change is necessary everywhere. But that change must ultimately start from within. External assistance and pressure may help, but cannot cure; understanding of the underlying causes and dealing with them will be essential to resolve the problems of poverty and violence, terror and tyranny that afflict many parts of the world.

The debate on whether it is politics or economics that determines the course of human development, is not new. But history confirms that just as no amount of force can suppress the innate human desire for liberty forever; it is also ludicrous to assume that the state alone can lead to development and prosperity or superimpose equity and equality. So a new creative convergence has to emerge where the state is relevant in creating a conducive environment but it is the people who really drive both politics and economics.

Scholars identified the problem afflicting the international society, increasingly rent between its economic and political organisation (geo-centric economy but ethno-centric politics) long ago, and recognise the need for reconciliation between the growing globalisation of economics and increasing localisation of politics now.⁸ A convergence between the guarantee of individual freedom, liberty and opportunity, along with social responsibility and collective well-being is the real challenge of institutional development in the new age. Even after the horrors of the Holocaust, as warnings were ignored, the world witnessed more genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Addressing the Special Session of the UN General Assembly to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps, Nobel Laureate, author and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel said, “If the world had listened…we may have prevented Dafur, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda”.⁹ Norms for the conduct of global politics are necessary for a world of global economics. New norms of behaviour for states, institutions and individuals, to keep pace with developments in science and technology are essential. But, how to change the mindset: the world is no more the same, everyone needs to change, I will never change?

8 To paraphrase Sidney Rolfe, “The real conflict of our era is between ethno-centric politics and geo-centric economics”. See Robert Gilpin “The Politics of Transnational Economic Relations” in George Modelski (ed.) Transnational Corporations and World Order (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1979). This author has been speaking on the growing paradox between globalisation of economics and increasing localisation of politics and the need to somehow reconcile between the two diverging trends and tensions between political and economic organisations for a long time now. See Shambhu Ram Simkhada, “Issues Before the SAARC Summit”, Bangladesh Institute of International Studies (BIIS) Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1989, pp. 411–477 edited by M. Abdul Hafiz, Dhaka, Bangladesh, as well as many of my more recent speeches and writings. For a further elaboration of this subject, also see Chapter 5, “Emerging Issues in the Global Human Rights Agenda”.

9 Nobel Laureate Eli Weisel, speaking at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps, 24 January 2005, United Nations, New York.

In the early 1990s, almost all speeches in major global fora started with the phrase “After the end of the Cold War; The fall of the Berlin Wall”. From the late 1990s to 2000, the phrase changed to “End of the millennium; Beginning of the 21st century; New millennium”. After the tragic events of 11 September, the punch line changed to, “After 9–11, the world is no longer the same”. Indeed, these epochs of history, along with developments in access to knowledge and knowhow demand change in the way we think, work and behave. Everyone invokes them to exact change in the behaviour of others. Firm international demand and actions are necessary to win over terror and tyranny. But there is also another road to change: self-introspection on the part of individuals, institutions and states, for a voluntary change of behaviour consistent with the dynamics of time and technology. Without its lessons, history represents timelines that come, go and come again—9 am, 5 pm, yesterday, today, last year, this year, 1918, 1939, 1945, 1962, 1990, 2001 and then again … 2018, 2039 … 3001. The real challenge to human wisdom is not to let 1918, 1939, 2001 and many such tragic days of history be repeated, again and again.

Remembering the tragedies of those who lost loved ones in lower Ma...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Human Rights: Historical Perspective and Contemporary Development
• 3. The 56th Session of the Commission on Human Rights
• 4. Fifth Special Session of the CHR
• 5. Emerging Issues in the Global Human Rights Agenda
• Epilogue: From the Commission to the Council: Human Rights in the United Nations
• Annex
• Glossary of Terms
• Index