Culture and protection of human rights<\/p>\n
By Frans H. Winarta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): As we approach the 48th Anniversary of the
\nUniversal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, it is perfectly
\nnatural that we spend some time contemplating the significance
\nand implications of this event.<\/p>\n
The birth of the declaration marked a time during which all of
\nthe nations of the world were still haunted by the trauma of
\nWorld War II. Together, they declared the rights of human beings
\nwhich had been trampled by the cruel and devastating war. The
\ndeclaration took place in San Francisco on Dec. 1, 1948.<\/p>\n
Human civilization was on the brink of collapse as one of the
\nresults of that raging world war. The cities of Berlin and Tokyo
\nwere battered almost beyond repair, while many other cities in
\nwestern Europe and Japan suffered considerably. By far the most
\nunfortunate of those cities were Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which
\nwere razed to the ground by atomic bombs. One of the more lasting
\nconsequences of that war is that the victims of the atomic bombs
\nare still falling today.<\/p>\n
Each year, the horrifying experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
\nis still commemorated by the Japanese and other nations
\nworldwide. Had the Allies chosen to target the city of Kyoto, the
\noutcome would have been very different. Kyoto has long been the
\ncenter of Japanese culture.<\/p>\n
In that light, it was fortunate that the Allies' generals were
\nstill able to think rationally enough that they did not go so far
\nas to destroy the city of Rome, one of the centers of European
\nculture, as they charged Mussolini's troops.<\/p>\n
The result of the horror witnessed in World War II and the
\nprospect of future wars obviously prompted the people who
\ngathered in San Francisco in 1948 to declare the Universal Human
\nRights, following a series of meetings among members of the
\nUnited Nations. The main objective of the declaration was to
\nalleviate the possibility of exploitation and destruction of
\nhumans by fellow humans. It was also designed to protect world
\ncivilization from the impact of ruinous wars.<\/p>\n
With the help of the UN General Assembly, the nations of the
\nworld unanimously agreed to respect, honor and observe human
\nrights, while preventing any form of discrimination based on
\nrace, color, sex, language, religion, political views, national
\norigins, or social class. They also vowed that no discrimination
\nbased on property, birth, or other types of positions, should
\never be allowed as general standards for measuring success. This
\nshould be true for all people and all nations.<\/p>\n
The human rights were declared in order to prevent another
\nworld war with the capability of completely crushing human
\ncivilization. Prior to that moment, individual rights used to be
\nsacrificed for the sake of collective interests, while collective
\nand individual interests are supposed to be well-balanced in
\norder to create a harmonious society. The moment one party gains
\nsome leverage against the other is the moment when imbalance will
\nreign in a society.<\/p>\n
Think about how Hitler's Nazi ideologies brought the German
\npeople into a situation in which the state enjoyed such a strong
\nposition that their freedom was constricted and they became so
\ndeeply influenced by the ideology of collectivism that they were
\nwilling to embrace even the craziest ideas of der Fuehrer
\nhimself. These ideas ranged from the ethnic cleansing of Jews to
\nthe idea of Deutschland uber alles as the manifestation of the
\nsuperiority of the Aryan race (white skin and blue eyes) over the
\npeople of color.<\/p>\n
As a nation, we also went through a most difficult and painful
\ntime during the Japanese occupation, from 1942 to 1945. Stories
\nof the sufferings of the romusha forced laborers and the comfort
\nwomen will always be part of Indonesia's history.<\/p>\n
After the Universal Declaration, human rights were reconfirmed
\nthrough a series of international conventions, the first of which
\nwas the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
\nRights and its Protocol. This covenant was declared by the UN
\nGeneral Assembly on Dec. 15, 1955, and went into effect on Jan.
\n3, 1976. The second international agreement on human rights was
\nthe International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights and its
\nProtocol, which went into effect on March 13, 1976. Both of these
\ncovenants, along with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,
\nare known as the \"International Bill of Human Rights\".<\/p>\n
The most important right guaranteed by both of these
\ncovenants, that is not included in the Universal Declaration, is
\nthe right to determine one's own destiny. These three important
\nUN documents are all recognized by experts of international law
\nas International Customary Law up to now.<\/p>\n
Human rights are not human culture, therefore we cannot claim
\nthem to be culture specific. Human rights inherently belong to
\nevery individual, irrespective of his or her origin, cultural
\nbackground, race, religion, political belief, or ideology.
\nFurthermore, once human rights are completely honored, human
\ncivilization will be protected and respected as a matter of
\ncourse.<\/p>\n
In addition to proclaiming the universal characteristics of
\nhuman rights to every nation of the world, the Universal Declara
\ntion on Human Rights of Dec. 10, 1948, was also a reaction to the
\ndevastating impacts of World War II on human individual rights
\nand human civilization. The declaration was meant as a prevention
\nof the outbreak of World War III, the aftermath of which would be
\nbeyond anybody's imagination.<\/p>\n
The writer is a Jakarta human rights lawyer, secretary of the
\nLegal Aid Institute Foundation and director of the International
\nRelations Division of the Indonesian Advocates Association.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/culture-and-protection-of-human-rights-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}