A View from the 1996 Human Rights Workshop
We seek to work and pray
for a world where people can rejoice in their own cultural identity and worth;
where people do not suffer for being different from others and are not looked
down on because of their lack of wealth or social status. We do this because
God seeks to restore right relationships of love and respect which reflect the
"fullness of life" which is God's vision for the whole of Creation.
Our societies have
idols: markets, money, profit, maximisation of individual gain, self-interest,
competition, and consumption of limited resources. These work against human
solidarity, dignity, mutual cooperation, community relationships, and living as
yeast, as servants, as salt in the world.
We situate ourselves
within student, Christian and movement realities, and therefore, within
people's movements struggling for the rights of those who are marginalised:
farmers, workers, urban poor, women, indigenous people, the differently-abled,
refugees and displaced persons, the elderly, and for environmentally
sustainable living. We recognise that failure to accord human rights, full
dignity and respect for another because of a person's skin color, sex,
ethnicity, disability, perceived sexuality, HIV status, the work a person is
forced to do or other "reason" are offensive to God who loves all
Creation.
The roles of people's
movements, mass organisations
and NGOs in Asia and the Pacific are diverse, including monitoring and
investigation of atrocities and human rights abuses, conducting action
campaigns and urgent appeals, helping to empower and organise the victims of
human rights abuses, ensuring that services such as legal assistance and
appropriate health care are available to those in need, education and standard
setting through popularisation of documents such as the 1993 Bangkok NGO
Declaration, promoting sustainable development and the scrapping of foreign
debt, engaging in international solidarity and lobbying within international
human rights bodies.
We commit ourselves and
our SCMs to be involved in such tasks, in order to serve all God's people,
"even the least" of our sisters and brothers, who are not
"least" in the eyes of God. We recognise that many of our SCMs are in
"survival mode," with much energy consumed in keeping the
organisation vibrant and that, therefore, it becomes difficult to become
involved in new aspects of the task. But in fact, human rights work is integral
to the spirit and mission of the SCM and WSCF.
Varied threats are
ranged about us, which hinder us from responding wholeheartedly to the mission
of God in the world. These include, fear due to oppression and repression,
censorship by repressive governments, social and family pressure centered upon
materialistic values, individualism, apathy, conservatism, religious
fundamentalism, and globalisation.
We also acknowledge that
our SCMs sometimes feel small and weak, lacking coordination, funding, staff,
and training. Yet we celebrate the good things that God does with our fragile
organisations and that God is faithful even when other supports seem absent.
Some factors in our various movements which have been causes of joy are:
o
the tremendous and deep friendships we make in the movement,
sometimes lifelong;
o
the opportunity for Christian community, sharing doubts as
well as faith and bringing our intellects and hearts to our faith;
o
our links with other human rights, student, church, and
ecumenical groups;
o
growing understanding between current generation SCMers and
senior friends;
o
a greater sense that we can involve friends in various ways which don't threaten
student initiative like giving talks to branches writing articles for publications,
allowing friends to host activities, and joining in the World Day of Prayer for
Students, and other significant occasions in the movement's lift
o
victories in some of the campaigns in which we are involved;
and
o
an enhanced sense of being part of a world wide community.
The workshop suggested a
number of strategies and approaches for shaping the hi man rights work of WSCF
Asia-Pacific for the
29
forthcoming two-year
period. We recognise that there is a dynamic interaction between local and
regional programmes, and as such, some of the listed items below that are
pertaining to national movements relate also to regional work, and vice-versa.
NATIONAL STRATEGIES
o
Improve inter-SCM contact through the internet, e-mail, etc.
o
Encourage SCMs to benefit from the appointment of HR
coordinators by providing opportunities for them to speak to branches,
undertake activities to enhance their work, and involve branch members in
activities like writing letters, participating in rallies, signing petitions,
spending time with oppressed groups, and so on. ^ Form an HR committee in each
national SCM, including the appointment of a human rights coordinator/contact
person, in order to strengthen human rights work.
o
Enable the HR committee/coordinator/contact person to send
regular info to the regional solidarity work coordinators on significant
problems and urgent appeals.
o
Activate the Regional Solidarity Network when urgent appeals
and issues arise. ^ Develop national human rights strategies using the 1995 and
1996 action plans.
o
Develop appropriate linkages between students and friends of
the movements, keeping a proper balance between student initiative and
activities of such friends.
o
Encourage movements to seek to make international links with
other SCMs, other student and HR groups, to access the UN system and other
international HR organisations.
o
Find ways to take on smaller parts of larger problems, in
order to assist students to grasp the problem in a manageable way ("we
learn more about what a ball is like by catching the ball, rather than by just
looking at it and analysing it from afar.").
o
Utilise creative ways and a variety of forms to present issues
in order to involve students.
REGIONAL STRATEGIES
Focus on resource
strengthening of national movements through the following:
o
resourcing and responding to appeals from national movements
where SCMs and the country are suffering particular hardships;
o
advocating for the rights of those in countries where SCM is
suffering particular hardship;
o
providing regular sub-regional and regional training programs;
o
where appropriate, using exposures/integration to gain a
greater understanding of the situation of those with whom we seek to be in
solidarity;
o
circulating the human rights manual and developing a human
rights resource book, in order to educate SCMers regarding human rights;
o
strengthening our links with other NGOs and human rights
groups;
o
including HR work in the budget and pursue income-generating
projects to assist HR work;
o
providing biblical and theological materials to national SCMs;
o
publishing articles in Praxis;
o
providing information to national movements on specific human rights problems;
o
developing regional campaigns on common problems;
o
facilitating visits and exchange programs for national
movements and developing
relationships (e.g., "sister-city" relationships between SCMs);
o
conducting synchronised campaigns (e.g., on yearly themes) and
focus materials and resources around those themes;
o
conducting sub-regional training programs for nat'l HR
coordinators/contact persons; and ^ in suitable cases, where there are severe
human rights abuses in a country and the local SCM requests for it, the
regional office could send a "special rapporteur" (from within or
outside the country) or fact finding mission to investigate, collect
information, express solidarity, advise the region and develop practical
regional action to alleviate the problem