Countries such as Guyana cannot justify their own falling standards with respect to torture, cruel and degrading treatment by reference to abuse of those standards by the United States, the Guyana Human Rights Association says in its message to mark International Human Rights Day.
The day is being observed today and the GHRA, in a statement, said that atrocities perpetrated by invading forces in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have served as a green light to other governments with respect to the use of torture and brutality. In addition, the failure to regulate market forces has and will generate widespread misery for countless millions around the world. The developed world is squarely responsible for both crises and the effect they continue to have in undermining respect and the protection of human rights, the association said.
It added that while not primarily responsible for the global nature of the crises, countries such as Guyana cannot justify their own falling standards with respect to torture, cruel and degrading treatment by reference to abuse of those standards by the United States. “An efficient system of justice is the only solution to addressing victims’ rights,” it asserted.
It noted that the obligation to protect remains the central human rights commitment of governments and has assumed over-riding importance in view of the current global economic and military crises.
International Human Rights Day 2008 is an appropriate occasion for civil society to reflect on ways to re-assert the ‘obligation to protect’ fundamental political, economic and social rights as the centerpiece of its relationship with the government of the day. “A relationship built on such a foundation will hopefully progressively replace the dubious ‘partnerships’ which currently absorb so much civil energy,” the GHRA declared.
Meantime, it noted that the 60th anniversary of the launching of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNHR) in Paris in 1948 will figure prominently in today’s commemorative activities around the world. United Nations High commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, captured the pivotal influence exercised by the UNHR in stating that it “has probably had more impact on mankind than any other document in modern history”. What is less recognized, the GHRA said, is the role played non-governmental organizations in securing and launching the declaration and years after it was launched, key individual in the drafting process have recalled the pivotal role played by the NGOs.
NGOs had played a key role in the agreement that human rights obligations be incorporated into the UN charter; they then played a decisive role in drafting the provisions of the UDHR. It followed logically that they should be in the vanguard of the thrust for implementation. As the first document integrating human rights concerns into one statement, the UDHR became the basic reference for constitution-making and non governmental activism on human rights, the GHRA asserted.
