The Declaration of Human Rights is for all, 2

BY FR. SHAY CULLEN

IN THE Philippines, human rights violations are all too common and government agencies and personalities have thrown aside, with contempt, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and slaughtered innocent people on mere suspicion in a show of brutality designed to instill fear, domination and total control.

The first article of the Declaration lays down clearly the truth and right to be upheld by all humankind. It says “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”

Not only is the right to equality declared but the rights are for all and everyone: “without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Yet our world is in a state of upheaval where daily we see nations invade, land grab and occupy another by force and fear. They displace the original inhabitants and rule with discrimination and force.

The Declaration says in its preamble that when people are deprived of their rights and dignity and lands, they tend to rebel and fight back against tyranny.

“Whereas 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.”

So only with the rule of just laws and the implementation of them without fakery, connivance, manipulation and delay based on manufactured evidence, will rights be all the more respected and upheld.

However, in the Philippines, the jailing and false charges against Sen. Lelia de Lima are clearly a deprivation and violation for her civil, legal and human rights. She is a symbol, an example of how low the respect for law and human rights have fallen in the country.

Filipinos are seriously deprived of these rights vital as they are to the well-being and dignity of the human species. Article 3 says, ““Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.”

The widespread and gross inequality shows society, by the rich elite, is working for the rich elite to make them richer. Equality is just a distant dream of the poor. The poverty they endure, surviving on a scrawny bowl of rice and soy sauce, is their daily nightmare. The rule of law is mostly bent in favor of the rich, the influential, the powerful, corrupt and connected people in society.

The rights of the child are so gravely neglected, disrespected and abused that justice is widely or frequently not available to them. They are the most vulnerable of all. Children are, according to Jesus of Nazareth, the most important of all in the world (Matthew 18:1-4).

Yet, some judges and prosecutors fail them by long delays taking two to four months for them to testify as if favoring the abuser. It was Jesus of Nazareth who first established the dignity and rights of children, women and the poor.

He championed their cause to equality and freedom, “Blessed are the poor,” he said. His mission was to uphold the human rights and dignity of the most needy, those deprived of their rights, the innocent in jail, the physically and intellectually blind people.

He fought to free the oppressed people and was executed for it. Many Filipino rights campaigners are unjustly jailed and they are deprived of their human rights. This must change and justice must be done. (preda.org)/PN