Human rights day and us
THE United Nations Human Rights Day passed yesterday with a very meaningful message for the whole year. This year's slogan is “Human Rights 365,” which underscores the idea that every day is a human rights day. This is to elevate the routine and ritualistic observance of the day to a solemn and substantive level. By stressing the need for year round commitment to human rights, the UN has put across two important messages: First, the UN agencies and the international human rights bodies should intensify their watch and monitoring of the rights-related environments and situations across the globe. Secondly and fundamentally, governments of all countries must be duty-bound to respect, protect and uphold human rights of their citizens.
Unless the people in power and the law enforcement agencies uphold the rule of law, civil liberties, the sine qua non for a democratic society will be jeopardised, albeit with a slur on and disservice to governance.
By this criterion, our records of abduction, forced disappearance, extra-judicial killing project a negative, even embarrassingly low, regard for human rights. A denial mode, derailed investigations, and lack of conviction and punishment of the culprits have combined to foster an impunity culture that makes minced meat of human rights. There is no shortcut to curbing crimes; due diligence, transparency and respect for the process of law are indispensable for effecting rapid improvement in our human rights situation.
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