Synopsis

HUMAN RIGHTS WITHOUT BORDER!!

Human rights are inherited and they are not awarded by the State. Certain rights self-evidently pertain to individuals as human beings because they existed in "the state of nature" before humankind entered civil society; that the principle among them are the rights to life, liberty and property. While entering civil society humankind surrendered to the state only the right to enforce these natural rights, not the right themselves. History has demonstrated that the State's failure to secure these reserved natural rights automatically gives rise to a right to responsible, popular revolution. One-sided characterization of human rights concept, its legitimacy and priorities will undermine the political credibility of their proponents and the defensibility of their values. The complex, highly interactive and interconnected and increasingly interdependent nature of global community demands the widest possible shaping and sharing of all values among all human beings. Any human rights concept or orientation that does not genuinely support political, economic, cultural, and solidarity rights of mankind will certainly provoke widespread cynicism and skepticism. For the poor in the Third World, human rights have meant the rule of the powerful. For indigenous people and minorities, human rights have meant the tyranny of the majority.

Essay Main Text
HUMAN RIGHTS AND INHUMAN WRONGS
Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, PhD
Classical Context

As a matter of an omnipresent temperament all human beings demand the realization of particular sundry values to warrant their individual and collective well being. General perception is that such prerequisites are often met with grim repression by social and state forces resulting in exploitation, oppression, persecution and other forms of deprivation. Concept of human rights is deeply rooted in the contradiction of wanting to realize those values and the tendency to foil the process of realizing those values with repression. Modern concept of human rights and the legal processes associated with it have evolved from the dialectics of this contradiction and are continually evolving. It is only after World War II and the founding of the UN in 1945 and followed by the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the concept of human rights gained its strength and found expression in most of the part of the world. Human rights concept replaced the "natural rights" concept because of the latter's burgeoning contention. The battle between 'food or freedom first' has remained the central to the human rights debate even after the official proclamation by the Second World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna that human rights are universal, indivisible and inter-dependent.

Generation First

Popularly known as individual "freedom" rights the first generation of human rights were derived primarily from 17th and 18th century reformist theories associated with English, American, and French Revolutions. The political philosophy of individual liberalism and the economic and social doctrine of laissez-faire provided the theoretical basis for this category of rights and therefore, human right was conceived more in negative (freedom from) than in positive (rights to) terms. This concept of human rights advocates abstention rather than intervention of government in the quest of human dignity. As the following statement epitomizes the central belief structure of this concept "...all government is of course against the liberty." The rights claimed in this category include: the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person; freedom from slavery or involuntary servitude, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and from arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile. Other important features are the right to a fair and public trial, the right to participate to government directly or through free election and the rights to own property and freedom from racial discrimination. Other components include freedom from interference in privacy and correspondence; movement and residence; thought, conscience, opinion, expression, religion, peaceful assembly and association. The first generation human rights correspond more to the idea of negative right as opposed to positive right and are still some rights such as right to security of person, to a fair and public trial, and to free election can not be assured without some affirmative government action. In the first generation conception of human rights, the notion of liberty constitutes the core value.

Generation Second

Also known as "food" rights, the second generation of human rights find their origin primarily in socialist tradition. These rights were the responses to the misuses and abuses of capitalism and its underlying essentially uncritical conception of individual liberty that tolerated and legitimated the exploitation of working class and colonial peoples. "Historically, economic, social and cultural rights were the counterpoint to the first generation of civil and political right, with human right conceived more in positive rather than negative terms requiring the intervention of state for the purpose of assuring equitable participation in the production and distribution of the values involved." Illustrates Manfred Nowak in his commentary on ICCPR. The rights claimed in this category include: the right to social security; the right to work and protection against unemployment; the right to rest and leisure; the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of self and family; and the right to education; and the right to the protection of one's scientific, literary, and artistic production. 

All the rights claimed by first generation of civil and political rights can not properly be designated as "negative rights", so all the rights embraced by second generation of social, economic and cultural rights can not properly be labeled as "positive rights". The rights such as free choice of employment, the right to form and join trade union, and the right to participate in the cultural life of the community do not require affirmative state action to ensure their enjoyment. However, most of the second generation rights necessitate state intervention in the allocation of resources for material values in accordance with social distributive justice. Therefore, second generation rights are fundamentally the claims to social equality.

Generation Third

As an outcome of interdependence and reconciliation the values associated with two earlier generations of rights the third generation rights are understood as the product of rise and decline of nation state in the last half of 20th century. The solidarity rights embraces a total of six rights, three of these rights reflect the emergence of Third World nationalism and its demand for a global redistribution of power, wealth, and other important values. The right to political, economic, social and cultural self-determination; the right to economic and social development; and the right to participate in and benefit from "the common heritage of mankind".  The other three third generation rights are: the right to peace, the right to a healthy and balanced environment, and the right to humanitarian disaster relief.

Based on a holistic community interest all these six rights are posed as collective rights, requiring the concerted efforts of all social forces. Each of these rights is articulated both in individual and collective dimension. The collective rights of all countries and people (particularly developing countries and non-self governing people) to secure a new international economic order that would eliminate obstacles to their economic and social development and the individual rights of all persons to benefit from a development policy that is based on the satisfaction of material and non-material human needs are the same rights manifested in two different dimension. The right to self-determination and the right to humanitarian assistance are expressed on legal as well as moral ground; most of these solidarity rights tend to be more aspiration than justifiable in nature.

Communication Super Highway

In the mid-19th Century, a Massachusetts portrait painter, Samuel Morse, transmitted the first message, "What hath god wrought?", by electric telegraph. In so doing, he initiated a new phase in world history. Never before could a message be sent without someone going somewhere to carry it. Yet the advent of satellite communications marks every bit as dramatic a break with the past. The first communications satellite was launched only just over 30 years ago. Now there are more than 200 such satellites above the earth, each carrying a vast range of information. For the first time ever, instantaneous communication is possible from one side of the world to the other. Other types of electronic communication, more and more integrated with satellite transmission, have also accelerated over the past few years. No dedicated transatlantic or transpacific cables existed at all until the late 1950's. The first held less than 100 voice paths. Those of today carry more than a million.

Instantaneous electronic communication isn't just a way in which news or information is conveyed more quickly. Its existence alters the very texture of our lives, rich and poor alike. When the image of Nelson Mandela maybe is more familiar to us than the face of our next door neighbour, something has changed in the nature of our everyday experience. Nelson Mandela is a global celebrity, and celebrity itself is largely a product of new communications technology. The reach of media technologies is growing with each wave of innovation. It took 40 years for radio in the US to gain an audience of 50 million. The same number were using personal computers only 15 years after the PC was introduced. It needed a mere four years, after it was made available for 50 million Americans to be regularly using the Internet.

The emergence of a global information society, is a powerful democratising force in combination with the realization of the right to information is a non-derogable right. Yet television, and the other media, tend to destroy the very public space of dialogue they open up, through a relentless trivialising, and personalising, of political issues. Moreover, the growth of giant multinational media corporations means that unelected business tycoons can hold enormous power.

Democratic Order and Disorder

Democracy isn't an all or nothing thing. It’s an integral apart of human rights movement.  There can be different forms, as well as different levels, of democratisation. Democracy in Britain and the United States, for instance, isn't all of a piece. A British traveler in the US once enquired of an American companion: 'how can you bear to be governed by people you wouldn't dream of inviting to dinner?' to which the American replied, 'how can you bear to be governed by people who wouldn't dream of inviting you to dinner? More or less everyone is a democrat now, but it certainly wasn't always so. Democratic ideas were fiercely resisted by established elites and ruling groups in the 19th Century, and often treated with derision. Democracy was the inspiring ideal of the American and French revolutions, but for a long while its hold was limited. Only a minority of the population had the vote. Even some of the most fervent advocates of democratic government, such as the philosopher John Stuart Mill, argued that limitations should be imposed on it. Mill recommended that some of the electorate should have more votes than others, so that in his words, the 'wiser and talented' have more influence than the 'ignorant and less able'.

On the face of it, democracy seems a fragile flower. In spite of its spread, oppressive regimes abound, while human rights are routinely flouted in states around the world. In Democracy might appear to flourish only in especially fertile soil, which has been cultivated in the long term. In societies, or regions, that have little history of democratic government, democracy seems to have shallow roots and is easily swept away. The expansion of democracy is bound up with structural changes in world society. Our runaway world doesn't need less, but more government - and this, only democratic institutions can provide.

Free Trade Regime

The free trade policy has been regarded as a key to the greater welfare of the world by free international movement of goods and capital. Countries can obtain goods which they may be unable to produce or may be able to produce only at greater cost. Ecological differences between one part of the world and another create natural comparative advantages and disadvantages. Natural resources are unevenly distributed around the world, and there is a natural comparative advantage in trading resources which are abundant for those which a country does not have or which would be more costly to extract. In the perfect competitive model, each country will specialize in the production and export of those products that use the lowest amount of labor time relative to the competition. As well, a country will import those products which require the highest amount of labor time.

Trade liberalization has an important role to play in improving resource allocation in developing countries, with the possibility of major dynamic and distributional effects. Free trade is vital for the fullest utilization of industrial capacity and perfect competition is assumed with no monopolies or cartels. It will pull down the wage rates and other benefits in the high-wage area. It will also push up the wage rates and benefits in the low-wage area by promoting equitable and efficient economic growth. Economic planners throughout much of the world have adopted free trade as a policy claiming that there will be a fair distribution of income and wealth among the population generally , among different occupations, and among regions, and will enhance the ability of governments to provide social programs. These are considerations central to international trade initiatives as they are to any economic policy. On a political level, more expansive trade agreements may make liberalized trade more legitimate in the mind of the public, since they enhance the sense that all countries are playing by the same rules. Many economists argue that retaliating against the “unfair” policies of a trading partner is usually more damaging than ignoring them.

A Common Heritage of All Cultures

'Common heritage' can denote a shared responsibility and a moral duty to participate in the protecting and passing down of the cultural heritage of all people of the world for future generations.  The world community has an interest not only in the resources that produce the raw materials for economic development but also in the resources that are a part of its heritage. Certain natural, scenic, and historic resources are unique and irreplaceable and should be shared by all peoples of the world. This is their inalienable human right.

Culture always incorporates power, whether they are constructed in a deliberate way or not. We shouldn't suppose that the conscious construction of culture is found only in the modern period. No cultural societies were wholly cultural, and cultures and customs have been invented for a diversity of reasons. Kings, emperors, priests and others have long invented cultures to suit themselves and to legitimate their rule. It is a myth to think of cultures as impervious to change. Cultures evolve over time, but also can be quite suddenly altered or transformed. Cultures are always properties of groups, communities or collectivities. Individuals may follow cultures and customs, but cultures are not a quality of individual behavior in the way habits are.

A Common Faith in All religions

This moment in history is "critical" for all religious communities. Many of the faith leaders hope to push the phenomenon of inter-religious cooperation to new levels of relevance for a world in crisis. Their appreciation of the "adventurous" spirituality that dialogue has enabled in recent decades is exceeded only by the conviction that inter-religious cooperation must now move further to involve more people in more creative ways to overcome divisions that threaten humanity.

Religions must act; they must act together and urgently.  We must commit ourselves to make humanity more humane. The new world situation with its complexities, uncertainties and challenges calls for a credible dialogue, greater partnership and closer collaboration between the religions. Yet the gap between dialogue and local realities can seem striking. Even today Christians and Muslims continue to seek to convert adherents of indigenous religions; they want only destroy temples, icons and holy relics of traditional religions. In our hunger for identity, growing numbers of people are returning to faith, but not necessarily to organized, institutional religion. The real conflict is not between civilizations or religions, but between humanity and anti-humanity. We share a common human condition, and the role of religion is to preserve, foster and secure civility in an age that is extremely hostile to it.

All faiths share common values and live within the same modern conditions which both underline and undermine traditional understandings. Religions must give passion to people as a way of taming the sweeping capitalization of the world. We must keep the human heart beating. We will need each other to help people to respond. If there is a "missionary impulse" today, it must be to convince people of our common community and values. If there is anything that we need to convert, it is the mentality of people to become true human persons. Our common missionary vocation is to transform the world to be truly human, to recover our common humanity. Inter-religious dialogue must be seen as a spiritual tool, and not an end in itself. We must integrate correct words with creative deeds, and so unleash the spiritual power that would liberate the people and transform societies. Nothing less than this is acceptable as the goal of the inter-faith movement for the third millennium.

The Western Empire

"Empire" has long been a dirty word. The US was the first country to win its independence from an imperial master; by the mid-twentieth century, most of the rest of the world had followed suit. The British Empire had collapsed by the end of the 1960s, and few, save the fiercest Tories in London, mourned its passing. Instead, the world celebrated the independence of countless new countries, inspired by such heroes as Mohandas Gandhi and Kwame Nkrumah. Scholars quickly joined the triumphal parade.

The parallels between the American and British Empires are not as far-fetched as most Americans think. In the late nineteenth century, the social and economic ideologies-namely social Darwinism and free trade-that motivated both American and British commercial imperialism were nearly identical. Ferguson quotes Indiana Senator Albert J. Beveridge and Holroyd from Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. Both the real politician and fictional "East Coast plutocrat" boasted about the power of American trade and the benefits it brought to all humanity. This point brings to mind the distinction between formal and informal empire, an idea which emerged to describe the reach of Victorian Britain. There was more to the Empire than just the Raj, the dominions, and the crown colonies. London, especially London's bankers, controlled an informal empire, which comprised countries such as Argentina and operated, according to Peter Cain and Tony Hopkins's British Imperialism, on the basis of the principles of "gentlemanly capitalism". Nominally sovereign, this informal empire depended entirely on British trade and British capital for its survival. At the turn of the twentieth century, the US had few formal imperial possessions in the Western Hemisphere, and its guiding ethos could hardly be described as "gentlemanly capitalism". Nevertheless, its informal empire unquestionably came to rival-and in time displaced-that of Britain not only in Latin America, but worldwide.

The new Western empire as a monopolistic super power must advance the unconditional uniformity in the progressive application and realization of all human rights for all!

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