Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Whose Rights Are Human Rights?

By Thrishantha Nanayakkara -August 27, 2013

Dr. Thrishantha Nanayakkara

Ravana Balakaya was on the streets protesting Navi Pillay’s visit to Sri Lanka. One banner asked, “Hey Pillay, don’t you have better things to do?” The same tone was seen in the statements of the Government, state media, and Bodu Bala Sena.

When we are born to this World, some say we are born free. Well it is not true. We are born so dependent on many things. We first heavily depend on the care of parents. Parents depend on the care of a society and the care of a constitution of a country whether they like it or not. If there is some flaw in the care of the society or the constitution of the country, whom should the parents depend on to protect the child? Shouldn’t it be the greater human kind on planet Earth? Then, who is going to protect the greater human kind?

Well, there was no such higher authority at the level of the planet till the end of World War II. It was a winner-takes-all game. The parties to the war came together to formulate a set of universal conventions that all Nations should abide by, and that resulted in the establishment of United Nations (UN). This did not still get rid of the special privileges of the super powers. The negotiations settled down in the formulation of a security council where each super power got a veto power to decide any united military action outside their countries. This too, did not insulate any country from a military action from a super power outside the UN charter. However, the World was left to accept that military action from a super power is most often done with good intention. This was proven to be blatantly wrong in the push of the Bush administration to find out weapons of mass destruction (WPO) in Iraq. Not many are aware that it was an action taken in denial of UN recommendations, and even outside the recommendation of the US house of congress. This kind of historical blunders undermined the respect for the UN’s original vision to be a Global umbrella organization to protect humanity from unfair military action. That resulted in denial of the rights of so many thousands of children born in Iraq and other countries affected by that unfortunate incident.Read More