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Human Rights and People's Governance

Sanjeewee Liyanage

What are Human Rights?

There is often a belief that Human Rights is a Western concept. There are many statements of Human Rights in Western history, such as the Magna Carta and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Writings of Asian philosophy such as Buddhism which provides the basic principles of Human Rights predate those from Western history.

There are regional mechanisms for Human Rights in North America, Europe and Africa. However, there are no such mechanisms in Asia. Therefore the Asian Human Rights Charter was developed as a people's agreement. This charter includes statements regarding people's Right to Life, Right to Peace, Right to Democracy, etc, as well as principles for the enforcement of rights and strengthening the framework for rights.

Human rights situation/problems in Asia-Pacific

Participants were asked to state some human rights problems they were aware of in their own countries.

· Migrant workers: exploitation, racism, and lack of knowledge of their own rights, physical abuse - sexual abuse, unjust labor laws, and family problems

· Religious/ethnic conflicts: right to peace, right to live, genocide

· Discrimination: for example, against people who are physically or mentally disabled

· Racism

· Torture by military, police

· Political rights: Right of association,

· Bride order: abused by husbands, no civil rights because they are not citizens, forced into prostitution

· Women trafficking: deception, no rights because of illegal status, physical abuse, and stigma

· Illegal mining: stealing natural resources

· Education and health for Aboriginals: no access to education and healthcare, for example, high rate of diabetes

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· Custodial deaths

· Land rights

· Disappearances

· Right to self-determination: contain people's movement through military aggression, cultural genocide

· Impunity: Avoiding (legal) responsibility

Human rights case studies and campaigns

Case Study 1: Caste-based discrimination in South Asia

The video showed us how Dalits are considered to be scavengers, animals, in Indian society. They are oppressed, exploited, and treated as if polluted. They are not included within the caste system of India: they are outcastes. After watching the video the participants were asked to share their feelings about the Dalits situation, and what rights were being violated.

What are the rights violated?

· Basic human rights

· Women's rights

· Right to live

· Right to dignity/identity

· Unjust structure policy

· Education, health, wages, safety

· Violate right of religion

· Freedom of speech

· Discrimination

· Employment

· Equality (in terms of economic situation and social status)

· Lack of the right to decide their own future

· Not treated as humans

· Brutal oppression

· Right to vote

· Right to physical safety

What are your feelings and impressions?

· Angry

· What should we do?

· Shocked

· Sad

· Disgusted

· Hopeless

· Who are Dalits in our country?

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· Want to share our lunch with them

· Smelly

· Selfishness of higher castes

· Life and solidarity with the struggles of others

· Freedom choose our opportunities

· NGOs to protest against government for their rights

· Whether this issue is put into the agenda of the World Conference Against Racism?

· Cannot imagine caste society is like this

· Disturbing

· Torture!

· Frustrated

This documentary aimed to make participants feel empathy in solidarity with Dalits. The system is maintained and justified through Hinduism. For this reason this treatment of Dalits continues despite having been made illegal.

Case Study 2: Enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka

In many countries thousands of people have "disappeared". No one is taking responsibility for these disappearances, and their bodies are rarely found. The Asia Human Right Commission (AHRC) has created a website with a "grave" for each person who has disappeared. This is a creative method for human rights action, not a controversial gesture. It is a way to raise people's awareness about specific human rights issues.

Human rights actions can be done by all human beings, as a birth right. There is a misconception that NGOs, lawyers, and social workers are the only people who can work in this area. However, we can all be involved in teaching people their rights.

Tools for Campaigning for human rights

Case study: Kwangju Uprising (Video: 30 minutes)

This video showed how a community tried to organize themselves in a difficult situation. It was important for these people not to forget their struggles, but to keep the memory of what had happened alive. This story provided hope, because eventually the leaders of the imposed martial law were brought to trial, and found guilty.

Importance of Remembering (Video: 15 minutes)

Together with the video of the Kwangju Uprising in Korea, this video emphasized

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the importance of remembering. By remembering with others encouragement, support, and inspiration is created. People to people solidarity ensure that the fight continues. It helps building community and also helps healing for the survivors; it helps people to cope with the tragedy.

People from Sri Lanka have visited the memorial in Kwangju. Sharing this remembering across countries has helped inspire and strengthen those in Sri Lanka who are affected by disappearances. Fighting for justice needs strengthening without losing hope. Monuments such as the ones in Kwangju and Sri Lanka are more effective because the people initiated them, not by the government.

Human Rights Solidarity Actions

Remedies for Human Rights Violations

Simply changing the legal system cannot solve human rights violations. In many countries the laws support human rights, but they are not enforced. Some people, especially police believe it is right to torture people. They think it the only way to find out the truth. Differences of opinions on issues such as these make it difficult to solve human rights issues.

Importance of modern communications systems and mass media in human rights solidarity actions

There are many advantages in using modern communication systems. For example, compared to conventional methods of communication, electronic mail is faster, cheaper, there is the ability to send documents, there is less censorship, delivery can be confirmed, and encryption can be used.

The AHRC Urgent Appeals Network is a good example of improving the effectiveness of appeals through e-mail and fax. The AHRC receives a complaint of a human rights abuse, and verifies it. It then contacts about 200,000 people and Human Right organizations around the world. Many of these people then write a fax or e-mail regarding the issue, and within 6 hours the suspected site, such as police station, which responsible for the human rights abuse will have received many messages from many different countries. This kind of pressure has saved many lives.

What is people's governance?

Participants were asked to consider the following questions:

· Who are "people"?

· Who is governing today?

· What sort of governance we have?

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· What are the problems with the present models of governance?

· What is democracy in postcolonial era?

· What is "people's governance"?

The following is the response from the participants:

* Majority of people who do not have control over the economics and politics of the nation or territory. There are a very few in the government, they are from the elite class, they control the economy of the country

· Equal participation in the decision making process

· In socio political Crisis, people cannot trust the government

· "Nation is the most important guarantee for a safe home/family"

· So-called democracy is ruled by a small group of people.

· Governance by the rich people

Facilitator asked again, that from the Asia-pacific perspective what do we mean by Democracy?

· Democracy is a dirty word among the grassroots people. Voting is an alien practice to many people. Grassroots are very cynical to voting.

· Democracy is not the most important but survival

· Democracy should be rule by the people

· Fair competition, political participation in decision-making and civil and political liberties

It was suggested that in a people's governance, ordinary people are encouraged to talk about their problems. The government listens to the people. This creates a tradition of people from the bottom speaking loudly. The student movement should help the people to talk, not tell them what to say. The people can suggest solutions to their own situations.

Models of people's governance: Folk School approach

The Folk School approach was given as a specific example of the people's governance. It was founded by a Dutch Protestant bishop N.F.S. Grundhvig. This school was formed during the harvest time to create a kind of space to enable people to share their views freely. Gradually the higher-class people joined this school. This broke down the class barriers at that time. This also created an atmosphere where everyone can come together as equals.

The facilitator leaves the matter to the participants of this approach and its relevance to Asia in terms of implementation of democracy.