MANY TO MANY 64 A Student's Talk on Human Rights

A Student's Talk on Human Rights

My name is Alison Cole and I am in my final year in preparation for university. It is my aspiration to be working in the area of international aid within the United Nations, and through this interest I joined my local United Nations Association and partook in their local speech contest. The topic was:

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON – BR> What Progress has been Achieved? What is yet to be done?

In the words of a great beauty from down under; it won't happen over night but it will happen. But despite all that care to make each strand shine, there always seems to be people to save, wars to stop, and many, many other things to do. But no need to split hairs just yet, people are working at gaining international recognition of human rights and have been ever since May 1945, when finally there was peace. 50 nations were able to draw up the UN Charter without being blown to smithereens. And three years later, 10th of December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted. A new kind of peace was created.

Now 50 years on this peace continues. The UN Declaration of Human Rights has provided a document acknowledged on the international forum. It has set out definite parameters for the liberty of the individual. But one area of grey still exists. How far into another country's customs and cultural differences can this Declaration be imposed? How is this problem to be overcome? These are the challenges the future holds.

In many ways all the undertakings of the UN can be viewed as efforts to ensure Human Rights are met. By reading the UN Charter there is little doubt that the basic premise underpinning the Organisation is the notion of inalienable human rights. This is even more so in today's world. Human rights issues have of late become increasingly apparent in United Nations peacekeeping operations for example. The past's "simple emergencies" created by organised violence across country borders have developed to more "complex emergencies" involving multiple crises such as governments collapsing, humanitarian tragedies, guerrilla warfare between rival ethnic groups, genocide, all of which constitute horrific violations of Human Rights.

In response to this, UN peacekeeping missions are directly involved with focusing on Human Rights monitoring and enforcement. The biggest achievement in regard to Human Rights was how the United Nations for the first time set standards which were generally agreed to, and drew attention to breeches of those standards, bringing moral pressure onto tyrannical governments involved. This emergence of a global norm also contributed to an issue now growing in importance. This is the concept of the world's interdependence. Undoubtedly there are still places in the world where Human Rights are not adequately recognised, but right now there is more attention to, more sensitivity to, and more work on advancing Human Rights than ever before in history.

Perhaps one of the prominent aspects of the Human Rights issue which we as New Zealanders can most identify with is that concerning indigenous people. Maoridom regard the question of land ownership as that most urgently needing attention, whereas on a worldwide scale, poverty is the most pressing problem. As you can see by this illustration (visual aid) the indigenous communities make up the majority of a nations poverty level. From this comes other related problems such as inadequate health services, a dying cultural identity, low levels of education, unemployment, loss of land and resources, and the overall violation of basic Human Rights.

These issues are being addressed however. Since 1995, the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People has been in progress with a draft declaration on the rights of indigenous people about to be finalised. These developments feature in the 1998 mission Statement (visual aid): ALL RIGHTS FOR ALL PEOPLE. Most importantly, the UN is enhancing an international audience's awareness of Human Rights. This awareness is the first step to solving all problems.

There is however, one slight hiccup. Clause 7 of article 2 of the United Nations Charter states:

"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorise the UN to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state."

So can you see here the problem for the UN? In the end, a declaration of Human Rights is only words on paper. The UN cannot force a state to change its ways. Secretary-General Kofi Annan inspires us to think around this obstacle towards the future, with the words:

"Only as rights are equally applied can they be universally accepted."

Some may say forced mutilations and other cultural traditions should be respected and preserved as the unique cultures of this earth. But they blatantly ignore the position and the rights of the individual. We are all are human, we all share the same fear of abuses and seek to be free of it. Should we sit by and watch pain and suffering?

There are ways this challenge has been met. The UN has the power to create a tide of world opinion in aid of oppressed peoples. In recent years the Commission on Human Rights has looked into abuses in Chile, Poland, Afghanistan, South Africa, the list goes on (visual aid). Economic sanctions have been imposed, UN forces have been sent to give protection, and details have been published worldwide about the actions of unacceptable regimes. Changes have been made within the structure of the UN institution, such as the appointment in 1993 of a senior UN official with the sole job of promoting human rights and seeking to prevent their violation. This High Commissioner for Human Rights immediately set out to assist in stemming the flow of Human Rights violation in countries such as Rwanda, by sending special rapporteurs and Human Rights monitors to focus attention on Human Rights issues. Now there are some twenty such rapporteurs assigned to specific Human Rights themes throughout the world.

To some, however, this is further evidence of an Organisation getting bogged down with bureaucratic procedures. A backlog of committees, development schemes and proposals seem to be clogging up the pipes of productive action. The fact is that 50 years ago the founders of the UN system were well aware of the need to provide and safeguard Human Rights. They sought to fashion an institution which would reflect this need. But organisations over time develop their own institutional needs which may actually frustrate human needs. Those governments and peoples which have greatest need of the services that the UN system can provide may be excluded form those services because of their incapacity to meet institutional demands which are the prelude to the provision of such services.

The UN therefore aims to address this issue to reflect the changes of our global civil society. This is a mammoth task – certainly not one to happen overnight. But it will happen because it must. The UN must move with the times. Interdependence and international communication and co-operation is the way of the future; and Human Rights are the foundation of human existence and most importantly, human co-existence.

Here in green New Zealand the lives of those without what we take for granted seem very, very far away. But even more so today, we are all world citizens, all part of a global neighbourhood. I put it to my own generation and to all the people of this earth to rise up to the challenge, to give our active support to the United Nations. Our job is clear before us and perhaps always will be . To quote Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:

"Today's Human Rights violations are the cause of tomorrow's conflicts."

End repressive regimes and strive for attaining of Human Rights.

Please feel free to contact me in regard to this, or any other UN related topic. I am very interested to hear your views and advice.
Alison Cole, 19 Frederick Street, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Anthony Brooke and Gita Brooke, co-founders
Te Rangi, 4 Allison Street, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand
phone/fax: +64-6-345-5714 ~ e-mail: Many to Many
under the aegis of
Operation Peace Through Unity
is a communicating link between
'we, the peoples' of all nations, races, creeds and ideologies offering in the spirit of the preamble of the United Nations Charter an instrument for the furthering of better relationships based on deepening mutual understanding and the aspiration to promote unity and cooperation beyond all differences.