World Day of Human Rights

translated by Angela Tagliafierro 

The World Day of Human Rights makes its day in a world full of wars, repression, and violence to remind us of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A day which every year reminds us all to deal with ourselves, with what we’ve done to protect human rights, what we haven’t done and the way forward. We’re aware that it’s a long road.

The World Day of Human Rights is celebrated on December 10^th every year, and it was introduced through the Resolution 423 (V) in 1950, two years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). A fundamental document which affirms the unalienable rights of each human being, to be considered like the milestone of human rights that this year is celebrating its 75^th anniversary.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights aims to foster the respect of the rights and the fundamental freedoms of human beings. It’s no coincidence that it was adopted immediately after the violence perpetrated during the Second World War.

In fact, the preamble of the Declaration specifies that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind”; consequently, “it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”.

What are human rights?

Human rights are the inalienable rights belonging to each human being; in other words, these rights are acknowledged to every human being only for being human. We can distinguish six categories of human right – civil, political, social, economic, cultural, and collective. These rights can be similarly distributed in three generations of human rights.

The first generation of human rights includes civil and political rights. They were firstly introduced in the XVII and the XVIII century, when politicians acknowledged the influence the population could and must have over the political choices of the Government. Right to the self-determination, life protection, prohibition of the torture, no discrimination, freedom of thought, of religion and association compose this group.

The second generation includes social, economic and cultural rights, referring basically to the way people live and work. They’re based on equality and the same access to assets and services. They include the right to work, to strike, to security and to education.

The third generation includes collective rights, recently developed, and are fundamentally based on solidarity. Therefore, it includes the right to growth, to peace, to humanitarian assistance, to the protection of the environment. They belong to the whole community as such.

Theory is fine, what about practice?

The Amnesty International 2022-2023 report describes meticulously the situation about human rights in 156 countries all over the world. It is a precise and detailed report which lets us understand that, maybe, not so many steps forward have been achieved. Since 2002, serious violations of human rights in several countries have been made: Ukraine, Iran, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, China… also Israel and the Gaza Strip area. This Amnesty International report was published on March 28^th, 2023. Hence, many of the human right violations perpetrated in 2023 haven’t been taken into account because at the time of the report, they hadn’t been done yet. In these last months, the legitimacy of human rights has been questioned because of hostility and indifference. As a matter of fact, today, like 75 years ago, people can be deprived of their rights so easily and this tendency keeps increasing because of the inadequate responses to these violations.

In Afghanistan, women's and children's rights are still denied. Women and little girls, as such, don’t have the right to education, to work, to free circulation. The Taliban in Afghanistan are trying to cancel and completely erase women from society. However, women's rights are in danger all over the world, not only in Afghanistan. Violence against women and girls is still a systematic problem and is also used as a weapon of war. The right to abortion in many countries is still a utopia: laws prohibiting and limiting access to it, make it difficult for women to have this right protected.

In 2022, war spread in Europe again because of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an invasion which challenges all the international laws. As a matter of fact, the Russian invasion clearly exemplifies what happens when some countries think to be allowed to bypass international laws and violate human rights with no consequences. Deportations, kidnapping, violences and rapes upset Europe. Moreover, this war highlighted the existence of a shameful double standard about refugees’ immigration policies: aren’t we supposed to protect everyone’s human right aside from the interest at stake?

In October 2023 Hamas attacked Israel, too. Another war, more violences and more human rights violations. A humanitarian crisis is ongoing unprecedented: civilians attacked (many among them are minors), interruption of humanitarian helps, civilians taken hostage.

The repression of dissent also increased because of months of wars. In Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Russia, China, Byelorussia many journalists have been imprisoned only for doing their job: to tell the truth. In this contest, it is important to highlight that many countries adopted laws aiming to restrict and silence manifestations and protests of the mass.

In face of this dramatic situation of human rights, it is necessary to reaffirm that human rights constitute the laws, are part of the International Law. They must not be considered like privileges restricted to a few people. Being a human being is enough to have these rights. Let’s remember it.

 

Mondo Internazionale APS – Riproduzione Riservata ® 2023