What Possibly Prevents Human Rights Fulfilment?
Dr. Laksiri Fernando
Today, 10 December 2103, marks the 65th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Anniversary may be celebrated on the basis of considerable awareness that this Declaration has created amongst the people all over the world about their rights and duties to respect others’ rights. The UN and others have made the Declaration available in over 150 languages. This year the UN is awarding the International Human Rights Prize to six winners, and the well-known Pakistani student activist, Ms Malala Yousafzai, is the most prominent among them, emphasising the importance of the right to education, particularly of young women. It is just four days ago that the world lost one of the most illustrious human rights icons, Nelson Mandela, who was also a previous winner of the UN Human Rights Prize.
However, the Anniversary cannot unfortunately be celebrated as a fulfilment of human rights that are embodied in the Universal Declaration, not necessarily in full, but not at least in half, or to any satisfactory extent. This is irrespective of the fact that all member states have pledged to respect the fundamental human rights by the UN Charter (1945) and they all have accepted the ‘universality of human rights’ at the last World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. This year the UN also commemorates the 20 years of that Vienna Declaration on Human Rights, yet these pledges are also not fulfilled to any satisfactory extent.
Global Picture
During the last six years, the worst or extreme risk countries for human rights violations have increased from 20 to 34, according to the Human Rights Risk Atlas (Maplecroft). This is in fact a 70 percent increase. I am not saying the Maplecroft tabulations are completely correct, but they are an indication. Most of the worst countries come from the Middle East and North Africa, due to the ongoing political conflicts and state suppressions. These are mainly Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Sub-Saharan Africa stands next due primarily to endemic ethnic or sectarian conflicts and includes Sudan, DR Congo and Somalia. Sexual violence is rampant in some of these countries.
Asia or South Asia is no better due to similar or other reasons. Some of these countries are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and even India, highlighted by the report. China is no better, irrespective of its ongoing reform agenda. There is also no question that the state is not the only perpetrator in some of these countries.
Among the better or low risk countries, the most prominent are the Scandinavian ones (Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden) and Australia. America, although comes within the ‘better’ category, ranked only at the 139th place among the surveyed 179 countries. Read More
