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Human rights under attack worldwide |
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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
The international community is failing in its responsibility to safeguard human rights on a global scale.
One of the most brutal legacies of the 20th century was a painful knowledge of humanity’s own capacity for violence and abuse, made clear again and again through watershed events of genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.
Faced with this legacy, the leaders of the 21st century have a moral responsibility to preserve the basic human rights of all people on earth.
They are currently failing in this responsibility, and failing miserably.
The recent situation in Tibet is an excellent example of this failure.
Amnesty International, a worldwide organization that promotes the protection of human rights, reported
on its Web site that on March 10, Chinese authorities jailed 15 Tibetan monks.
The monks had been protesting a Chinese policy that smacks of repression - a propaganda-filled
“re-education” program attempting to weaken Tibetan loyalty to the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan spiritual
leader.
No information is available on where these protesters are being held, nor any description of the crimes
with which they have been charged.
The rest of the world will probably never know which brand of “justice” the Chinese government will
decide to impose on these monks, but the fact that no one knows their fate is unsettling.
This incident has been a powder keg, destabilizing the Tibetan region as violence erupted March 14
across western China, beginning with a riot in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
BBC reported on March 26, the Chinese government announced over 660 protesters and rioters have
been arrested thus far in connection with the rioting, and on March 29, the Tibetan government
asserted around 140 people had been killed.
The Chinese government, meanwhile, claimed only 19 deaths had occurred, at the hands of the rioters
themselves.
This is only one example of a growing phenomenon in which, despite the horrific examples of the 20th
century, basic human rights are violated worldwide on a daily basis, while the international community
sits idly by and watches.
Among international leaders, the outrage and condemnation that should be pouring forth against the
Chinese authorities for jailing innocent protesters has been limited to a trickle of criticism.
According to CNN’s reports, the United States government has refused to threaten to boycott the
Olympic ceremonies, despite the knowledge that doing so would be the best way to put pressure on
the Chinese government.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not ruled out the option, but neither has he openly threatened to
take such drastic measures against the Chinese. The loudest voice speaking out on behalf of the
Tibetans continues to be that of non-government organizations.
This fits in with the greater pattern of government failure to respond to human rights abuses worldwide.
When the Holocaust occurred, the mantra that was often repeated afterward was “never again.”
Then the 1990s came and saw hundreds of thousands of Rwandans killed as governments worldwide
failed to intercede.
The international community failed them, as it is currently failing the innocent people being killed and
raped in Darfur, Sudan.
It failed them as it is failing the victims of religious persecution in Iran, the Tibetan monks imprisoned
for peaceful protest, and the victims of America’s medieval tactics of illegal imprisonment and torture
right here in the United States.
If our governments do not take strong action against human rights abuse worldwide, it falls us, the
citizens.
Joining a non-government organization that works to improve the human rights situation worldwide is an
excellent way to start.
Amnesty International is an excellent example of such organizations, and there are many other groups
with a similar purpose.
Another measure that private citizens can take is to protest the human rights abuses that our own
government commits.
Putting pressure on members of Congress to stop the practices of denial of due process of law to
“enemy combatants” and interrogation by torture will send a message that the United States cannot
help provide a solution to international human rights abuse until it stops being part of the problem.
Helping to raise public awareness of the many human rights crises that exist in the world today is the
final critical step that people can take.
The more others learn about the extent to which human rights are under assault, whether from
autocratic governments or from American policy itself, the more of a chance the world has to remedy
the situation.
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