BY SHAY CULLEN
EVERYONE should be aware that every person, according to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has inalienable rights that must be respected and protected. Irrespective of their nationality, ethnic origin, sex, gender, color, religion, language or any other status, every person has universal rights.
These are the rights: to life, to water, food, security, family, employment, education, freedom and health and the right to live as they choose.
They have their rights to freedom, not to be forced against their will to live according to the will and regulations imposed on them by the state or a group more powerful than them.
But when we look around the world today, we see that the people of many countries do not have their human rights fully respected, honored, protected and celebrated by the governments that have the duty to do so.
In fact, everywhere there are many violations by state agencies, police and military and fellow citizens. The human species aspires to the highest values of being human but are weak, remiss and dismissive in implementing and respecting those high ideals of the rights inherent in the species because they are human.
The principle of universality means that everyone, without exception, is equally entitled to live with their human rights respected and protected, especially by the state. When we see the violation of human rights, whether it is the rights of an individual, a group, or an ethnic minority, we have to protest.
We need to expose the violations, which can be a serious crime against humanity. Each of us, as humans, must demand that the violations end and the perpetrators be held accountable.
If we donât, then we too could be victims of such human rights abuses. While that is self-preservation, it is not the true reason we have to cry out.
The true reason for protest is because every human is of equal value and shares the same rights as everyone else. âTo violate one is to violate allâ we can say, because we are all one humanity.
There should never be discrimination against anyone but the greatest crime against humanity is that there is discrimination, ethnic hatred, and racism against millions of human beings today.
In the Philippines, a report last 4 June 2021 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed there have been 208 human rights defenders and activists killed by assassins including forest protectors.
The war-on-drugs police have verified that about 5,903 suspects have been killed in shoot-outs. The OHCHR put the figure at 8,663 killed. Many more have been killed by vigilante gunmen. President Rodrigo Duterte says it is evidence of success in saving the nation from the scourge of the illegal drug menace.
Another glaring example is the repression of the Uyghurs in China. This is a severe violation of the rights of a whole people. This is the reason that several western nations have chosen not to send national representatives to attend the Winter Olympics in China next February.
The Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, North West China are suffering an alleged genocide at present. The allegations are that most of their human rights are being systematically violated to the point that what is being done to these people are crimes against humanity. (To be continued)/PN
