A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) joins the rest of the international community today to celebrate and at the same time to reflect on the challenges faced by the global human rights project at this very crucial moment.
We welcome the statement by UN Human Rights Chief, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued on this occasion, and we especially draw attention to the following quote from this important message.
“Further, human rights are not merely abstract ideas. They offer concrete norms, laws, and a vital framework that protect against abuses, violations, and other harms, ensuring everyone, everywhere can live in dignity and respect.
Human rights are a powerful force for good. Upholding human rights isn’t only about addressing present injustices, it’s about driving significant social change by reshaping unjust societies and empowering marginalized groups.”
The Asian Human Rights Commission notes with deep concern that in recent times there have been very significant challenges to the protection and promotion of human rights from around the whole world. The expectation of unanimous single-minded support for human rights as was hoped for at the time of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 seems to have been seriously undermined in recent years. Even the commitments for the promotion of human rights by the more developed democracies seem to have suffered a setback, and violent conflicts, protracted wars, and unspeakable attacks on civilians including children, women, and older persons have repeatedly occurred while the global human rights community and the systems established for universal protection of human rights were ignored for the most part. With shock and dismay, the world is once again calling for a reexamination of the concerns of the whole of humanity on the extent to which the world is willing to honor the undertakings that were declared by the end of the Second World War with the hope that the past crimes will not be repeated and that humanity may begin to work towards a better future for everyone.
As the Asian Human Rights Commission is based in Asia, and is engaged mostly in the work in South Asia and South East Asia, we also wish to draw the attention of the world to many forms of horrendous suffering, and denial of rights that prevails in this part of the world. Despite promulgations of international covenants of civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, and articulation of many rights to various conventions, the overall situation of respect for human rights in this part of the world remains dismal and shockingly backward. Besides the failures of respect for human rights in general, the neglect of the environment and the natural resources are of such a nature that there is reason to fear the possibilities of great catastrophes emerging in the region, particularly with relation to climate change and manifestations of natural calamities. Inadequate attention has been paid to these problems, particularly since deep crises are faced in the areas of the national economies. Poverty overpowers everything else, and in fact, even creates indifference towards all other problems. There seems to be a manifest lack of political will to deal with these problems which in itself also constitutes a serious problem.
In the areas of civil and political rights, in the countries of South Asia and South East Asia, there are extremely acute problems relating to the right to life by way of various forms of extrajudicial killings including enforced disappearances, illegal arrests, and detentions authorized under many pretexts, denial of fair trials to a scandalous degree, and the attacks on freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Free and fair elections are denied in many places, and thus civic space has been artificially limited to pave the way for greater repression. What makes it worse for civil and political rights is the failures of investigative and prosecutorial systems in many of the countries. Getting away with murder and other great abuses of human rights violations is made easy by poorly functioning criminal justice institutions, and politically controlled prosecutorial systems. The global human rights community has not paid adequate attention to these serious civil rights problems existing in the developing countries in the world including that of South Asia and South East Asia.
In the areas of economic, social, and cultural rights, many countries are faced with acute problems of poverty, unemployment, food-related deprivations, and also health and medical facilities. One of the reasons for this situation is the global arrangements concerning international debts. The nations caught up in the debt traps simply have no way of escape, and the result is exorbitant rises in the basic foodstuff and other necessities. International discourse on human rights today requires a genuine effort to find ways to help the nations that for one reason or another are caught up in debt traps to find avenues for escape so that the resources available in their countries could be used for the improvement of their living conditions, and improvements of the quality of the human rights.
Of greatest importance at this time is to pay special attention to countries that are faced with the problems of civil war. It is a moral duty to express concern, particularly for Myanmar where an intense civil war has been the result of actions by the Burmese Military leaders to undermine the democratic processes in the country. As a result of this civil war, large numbers of people have been killed, and enormous numbers are displaced. All normal activities have come to a serious crisis. The global community owes a special obligation to all the people of Myanmar including all of its ethnicities, to create an environment in which they can return to a normal way of life and become part of the human rights community in the world.
A special word must also be said about a great threat to national economies posed by certain political regimes, and some of their leaders. It should become a part of normal human rights concerns of the human rights community to assist the people of these countries to recover their stolen assets which have been deposited mostly in places outside their national territories.
We particularly welcome the political interventions of the masses in recent months, in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In both of these countries, people themselves have taken to active participation demanding the end of the autocratic system of governance and demanding significant structural reforms in all areas such as political systems, legal systems, and also systems of welfare particularly to the poorest section of society. There is a general mood of a demand for greater civic space so that people themselves can participate in determining the conditions under which their rights can be protected. In this, it is the younger adult population of today that has begun to articulate the new aspirations of the people of these countries. The global human rights community should take a fresh look at these changes, and assist in every possible way to achieve the kind of institutional reforms that the people are demanding to ensure greater respect for democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. System change has become a trending hashtag. The global human rights movement needs to make “System Change” its main area of concern, particularly for developing countries.
Thus, we support the call by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to make the respect for human rights a matter of international public challenge by extending practical support to those persons and nations whose rights have been blatantly violated.
