Section 4: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

o Knowledge of major human rights issues and their status around the world, measured against the articles of the UDHR.

o Knowledge of the primary organizations and resources that monitor and report on the state of human rights, and familiarity with their materials and websites.

o Knowledge and use of procedures for reporting human rights violations and advocating implementation of UDHR.

How effective is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and what must be done to broadly implement its provisions?

This section contains examples of current violations of six Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles. These are included to provide a general view of the current state of human rights and to suggest topics for further research and action.

VIOLATIONS OF ARTICLES OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights advocates agree that 60 years after its issue, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still more a dream than reality. Violations exist in every part of the world. Amnesty International’s World Report 2008 and other sources show that individuals are tortured or abused in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 77 countries. Women and children in particular are marginalized in numerous ways, the press is not free in many countries, and dissenters are silenced, too often permanently. While some gains have been made in six decades, human rights violations still plague our world today.

Provided in this section are examples of violations of seven Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles, to serve as discussion points and research topics.

ARTICLE 3 – THE RIGHT TO LIFE

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

o An estimated 6,500 people were killed in 2007 in armed conflict in Afghanistan, nearly half noncombatant civilian deaths at the hands of insurgents. Hundreds of civilians were also killed in suicide attacks by armed groups.

o In Brazil in 2007, according to official figures, police killed at least 1,260 individuals—the highest total to date. All incidents were officially labeled “acts of resistance” and received little or no investigation.

o In Uganda, 1,500 people die each week in the internally displaced person camps. According to the World Health Organization, 500,000 have died in these camps.

o Vietnamese authorities forced at least 75,000 drug addicts and prostitutes into 71 overpopulated “rehab” camps, labeling the detainees at “high risk” of contracting HIV/AIDS but providing no treatment.

ARTICLE 4 – NO SLAVERY

“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”

o In northern Uganda, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) guerillas have kidnapped 20,000 children over the past 20 years and forced them into service as soldiers or sexual slaves for the army.

o In Guinea-Bissau, children as young as 5 are trafficked out of the country to work in cotton fields in southern Senegal or as beggars in the capital city. In Ghana, children 5–14 are tricked into dangerous jobs in the fishing industry with false promises of education and jobs.

o In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked women, especially from the Philippines and Thailand. Also, UNICEF estimates 60,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines. The US State Department estimates 600,000 to 820,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, likely a low estimate, half of whom are minors and including record numbers of women and girls fleeing from Iraq. In nearly all countries, including Canada, the US and the UK, deportation or harassment are the usual governmental responses, with no assistance services for the victims.

o In the Dominican Republic, the operations of a trafficking ring led to the deaths by asphyxiation of 25 Haitian migrant workers. In 2007, two civilians and two military officers received lenient prison sentences for their part in the operation. In Somalia in 2007, more than 1,400 displaced Somalis and Ethiopian nationals died at sea in trafficking operations.

ARTICLE 5 – NO TORTURE

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

o In 2008, US authorities continued to hold 270 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without charge or trial, with clear evidence of torture. Senior officials refused to denounce the practice of “water-boarding,” torture that simulates drowning. Former President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to continue secret detention and interrogation, despite its violation of international law.

o In Iraq, US military personnel took over the Abu Ghraib prison (where Saddam Hussein’s government had tortured and executed dissidents) and tortured Iraqi detainees.

o In Darfur, violence, atrocities and abduction are rampant and outside aid all but cut off. Women in particular are the victims of unrestrained assault, with more than 200 rapes in the vicinity of a displaced persons camp in one 5-week period, with no effort by authorities to punish the perpetrators.

o In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, acts of torture and ill treatment are routinely committed by government security services and armed groups, including sustained beatings, stabbings and rapes of those in custody. Detainees are held incommunicado, sometimes in secret detention sites. In 2007, the Republican Guard (presidential guard) and Special Services police division in Kinshasa arbitrarily detained and tortured numerous individuals labeled as critics of the government.

ARTICLE 13 – FREEDOM TO MOVE

“1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.

“2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”

o In Myanmar, thousands of citizens were detained, including 700 prisoners of conscience, most notably Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Imprisoned or under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years in retaliation for her political activities, she has refused government offers of release that would require her to leave the country.

o In Algeria, refugees and asylum-seekers are frequent victims of detention, expulsion or ill treatment. Twenty-eight individuals from sub-Saharan African countries with official refugee status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were deported to Mali after being falsely tried, without legal counsel or interpreters, on charges of entering Algeria illegally. They were dumped near a desert town where a Malian armed group was active, without food, water or medical aid.

o In Kenya, authorities violated international refugee law when they closed the border to thousands of people fleeing armed conflict in Somalia. Asylum-seekers were illegally detained at the Kenyan border without charge or trial and forcibly returned to Somalia.

o In northern Uganda, 1.6 million citizens remained in displacement camps in 2007. In the Acholi subregion, the area most affected by armed conflict, 63 percent of the 1.1 million people displaced in 2005 were still living in camps two years later, with only 7,000 returned permanently to their places of origin.

ARTICLE 18 – FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

o In Myanmar, the military junta crushed peaceful demonstrations led by monks, raided and closed monasteries, confiscated and destroyed property, shot, beat and detained protesters, and harassed or held hostage the friends and family members of the protesters.

o In China, Falun Gong practitioners were singled out for torture and other abuses while in detention. Christians were persecuted for practicing their religion outside state-sanctioned channels.

o In Kazakhstan, local authorities in a community near Almaty authorized the destruction of 12 homes, all belonging to Hare Krishna members, falsely charging that the land on which the homes were built had been illegally acquired. Only homes belonging to members of the Hare Krishna community were destroyed.

ARTICLE 19 – FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

o In Sudan, human rights defenders were arrested and tortured by national intelligence and security forces.

o In Ethiopia, two prominent human rights defenders were convicted on false charges and sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

o In Somalia, a prominent human rights defender was murdered.

o In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the government attacks and threatens human rights defenders and restricts freedom of expression and association. Provisions of the 2004 Press Act were used by the government to censor newspapers and limit freedom of expression.

o Russia repressed political dissent, pressured or shut down independent media and harassed nongovernmental organizations. Peaceful public demonstrations were dispersed with force, and lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists were threatened and attacked. Twenty murders of journalists critical of government policy remain unsolved.

o In Iraq, at least 37 Iraqi employees of media networks were killed in 2008 and 235 since the invasion of March 2003, making Iraq the world’s most dangerous place for journalists.

ARTICLE 21 – RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY

“1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

“2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.

“3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

o In Zimbabwe, hundreds of human rights defenders and members of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were arrested for participating in peaceful gatherings.

o In Pakistan, President Musharraf ordered the arrest of thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political activists for demanding democracy, the rule of law and an independent judiciary.

o In Cuba, at the end of 2007, 62 prisoners of conscience continued in prison for their nonviolent political views or activities.

Discussion Questions:

1. What human rights issues are currently in the news (internationally, nationally, locally)?

2. What is your assessment of these issues, measured against the UDHR and other human rights instruments?

3. What legal consequences does an individual, group or government face if they violate an individual’s or a group’s human rights?

4. What actions should your local, state or national government take to end a particular human rights violation or violations in general?

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1041