Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

An Urgent Need for Protecting Human Rights

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An Urgent Need for Protecting Human Rights

The global wars, which outraged human conscience, inflicted heavy casualties upon nations around the world and led to indescribable pain and sufferings. Streams of men, women and children’s blood were shed and millions of people lost their lives or were amputated in the worst possible way. In addition, the violence and carnage unfolded men’s megalomania and evil. Subsequently, the world realized the fact that violence will lead to horrible consequence rather than resulting in peace and prosperity and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was endorsed to alleviate the pain and anguish of human societies and cultivate the spirit of brotherhood. Based on UDHR, men are born free with natural and inalienable rights and dignity and have to be respected irrespective of their color, caste and creed.
The bulk of violence originated from parochial mindsets, religious intolerance, radical ideologies and racial superiorities. In other words, one was humiliated for his/her racial and sexual background and deemed inferior for nurturing a certain type of belief. It is an unmistakable fact that viewing the individuals form the lens of race or religion will lead to challenges in a society. Therefore, the UDHR declared that all men are supposed to exercise equal rights and dignity on the basis of being human and no one is supposed to trample upon the inalienable rights and liberty of the people.
Historical violence and bloodshed, which wrecked deadly havoc on human societies, originated from violation of human rights, aggression and tyranny. In other words, when men found their rights and dignity at risk, they had “recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression”. They felt compelled to raise their voice against the despotic regimes and cruel rulers at the cost of their life. They had to revitalize the spirit of humanity and moral norms in human societies through donating blood – it is far more honorable than having one’s bleed shed in vain under dictatorial regimes.
However, violation of human rights is widespread and people suffered from violence and bloodshed in the worst possible way, especially with the increase of warring factions. For instance, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) kill men, women and children in cold blood. The dignity and fundamental rights of mankind are meaningless for the ISIL group since it nurtures radical ideology.
The day-to-day macabre stories of the terrorist victims add insult to the historical injuries of our people. Our old wounds are being infected by the poisonous ideologies of the newly emerging militants. To our unmitigated chagrin, we have never been put in the process of therapy for our bleeding hearts root in three decades of war and carnage.
Men still live in a deplorable state. Violating international instruments and moral taboos are really imprudent of us. Malice and cruelty continue unabated. We harm one another, perpetrate honor-killing acts, blacken our neighbors’ reputation and shed our brethren’s blood with no iota of mercy. We succumb to the worldly temptations, yield to carnal desires and satiate our voracious appetite for not only pecuniary issues but for hurting our fellows without feeling a sense of guilt.
It is a matter of great surprise to see that in the transient moment of life, men curtail others’ freedom and sacrifice their rights and life for their own enjoyments. In short, one wishes to relegate his fellows to dystopian world so as to live in their own utopia.
It should be noted that, “A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” 

To protect the rights and dignity of mankind around the globe, the international community needs to implement the UDHR and United Nations Charter. More importantly, the violators of human rights – be it a group or a country – must be prosecuted seriously. If there is no sanction behind implementing the international instruments, what will be the use of approving them?

Hujjatullah Zia is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at zia_hujjat@yahoo.com

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