Human Rights and the Poor

By: Bikal Dhungel 

Foreign Employment is not as exotic as it sounds. Every day, four dead bodies also land in Tribhuwan International Airport, the dead bodies of Nepalese who die in foreign soil. They die while fulfilling their duties, in industrial accidents, sometimes in the hands of their employer and sometimes in domestic violence. Governments of the Middle Eastern countries seem to show no interest in such deaths of foreigners and are reluctant to bring the guilty into justice. Where are the Human Rights of these labors? Where are the compensations if there is any? Surprisingly, most of the Nepalese labors that go abroad do not know what Human Rights are. So, these people claiming their rights from their employers seem unlikely. The most defining question of our time goes: What are Human Rights? 

 

Human Rights are the rights that human beings have because they are humans. This includes the right of free expression, right of religion, right of sexual orientation etc. These rights are inherent to every human being living in this earth of every country, race, creed, sex, ethnic origin, color or any other status. ‘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’ goes Article 1 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So, every person deserves this right. This person might be a poor person, a rich person, a child, an old man, an actor, a doctor, a football player, a singer, a Nepali, an Indian, a Chinese, a German, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim, an Atheist, a mother, a father , a step-mother, a neighbor, just everybody.  This means, Human Rights are universal. It is for everybody.  

Still, a large portion of this earth is not familiar with even most basic Human Rights. Many are denied these rights every day. People wonder by knowing that there is also such thing called Rights. 

So, what are these Human Rights? Who discovered these rights? These questions are often debated and there is no clear answer about who invented this and when and where they first existed. What everybody agrees on is that if someone belonged to elites or ruling class in the past, for example the Monarchs, they enjoyed their rights. 

However, historians claim that Cyrus the Great, the Emperor from Persia spent some time dealing with Human Rights issues. Cyrus the Great conquered a huge part of South and Central Asia as well as some parts of Europe and Caucasus. His Empire was one of the largest in the world. Cyrus was fascinated by the culture and tradition of the lands he conquered, hence he treated all of them with respect. After he conquered Babylon, Mesopotamia (today in Iraq) in the year 539 BC, he came up with the idea that all slaves should be set free. Furthermore, he claimed that every person could choose the way of life they wish to live, including the right to religion, no matter which. People of that time documented the words of Cyrus the Great in a clay cylinder called Cyrus Cylinder today. This was the birth of so called Human Rights that we know today in broader sense. The idea of Cyrus spread soon after to Greece, India and finally also to Rome. Unfortunately, after Cyrus the Great, Human Rights were almost forgotten for a long time.

For the next 1000 years to come, this idea was kept under the carpet. In 13^th century England, King John accepted that no one can deny the rights of others, even the king himself. The charter called ‘Magna Carta’ required the king to accept that no one can be punished except through the rule of law. Again, in the year 1689, the parliament of England granted the Freedom of Speech, rights of election, and various rights through so-called ‘Bill of Rights of 1689’.  

The French Revolution followed a decade after with longer lists of rights that individuals needed. The monarchy was toppled by the enlightening principles of freedom, equality, democracy and inalienable human rights. The motto of the French Revolution remains the motto of France today, “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité“ ( Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ). The rights were granted to the French people but soon after, the rights of other Europeans were violated by the French military leader and politician Napoleon Bonaparte when he attacked the neighboring countries to expand his empire. Luckily, many countries of Europe were united and defeated Napoleon. Rights became the most important topic in Europe. In Europe, Human Rights was born but unfortunately in other countries, the Europeans raised war, colonized large parts of Asia, Africa, Caribbean and South America and denied the rights of people living there for centuries to come. 

In the so called ‘third world’, Human Rights was spoken first by a man with immense intelligence, called Mahatma Gandhi who campaigned that every people on earth should have the right and not only the Europeans. Slowly, the Europeans accepted that fact. However it was not an easy task granting the rights to others. The two great wars took place. Adolf Hitler killed 6 million Jews only in Germany and millions of other Gypsies, Homosexuals, Handicaps, Immigrants and his political opponents namely the German Social Democrats. Half of the Jewish people on earth were killed. 90 million people died in the world war in total. Never before the full destruction of Human Rights was so near. So, after this disaster, the countries from the whole world came together and formed the United Nations in 1945 whose aim was also ‘… to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person’. This time it was the Rights which were more than the Human Rights mentioned on the Cyrus Cylinder, more than the Rights demanded during the French Revolution, more than the Rights of the Europeans. It was the Rights for everybody. Under the leadership of first lady of the United States and the wife of Franklin D Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, the nations agreed to grant these Rights for everybody.  This set of Rights was named ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. 

Human Rights are therefore the part of Human Civilization. It took more than two thousand years till every human on earth was granted equal rights. 

But this is not the end. The question goes on, if people have the Rights of enough food on their plate and Rights of accommodation, why on earth 16,000 people die worldwide every day by extreme hunger? Why there are prisoners of conscience?  If there is a right of freedom of speech, why on earth thousands are locked in the prison for expressing their thoughts? If there is a right of Education, why on earth there are over one billion people who cannot read and write? If there is a right of self determination, why on earth there are 27 million people worldwide who are handled as slaves? The answer is simple: The ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ was not ratified as a law when it was signed. Despite many other deals, agreements and accords in the following years, it still remains as a piece of paper that is ignored by almost every nation who signed this agreement after World War II. After the establishment of United Nations they said ‘Never again such war should take place’ but it took place again and again and again and again. Korean War, Cold War, Arab-Israeli War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and the list goes on. Millions of others were killed in Civil wars. Human lives were lost for nasty reasons and Human Rights have been ignored time and again. How could the world let such thing happen? 

Nelson Mandela fought for social justice and basic rights for his people. Even though his country South Africa signed the deal, he had to fight for that right. When Martin Luther King, Junior demonstrated for the equal right for African Americans in the sixties, he campaigned for  respecting the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ which was signed just two decades ago. He still had to fight for this right that was actually guaranteed by the United Nations. His fight cost him his life. Many people, still today, fight for these rights. The people who fight for basic human rights today are not super heroes, they are normal people, children, mothers, fathers, teachers and individuals who love to be free and who refuse to be silent. These people know that Human Rights are not only the history, they are not only the words written on a paper, and they are not only the speeches, not only the campaigns. They are the decisions that we make daily, the responsibilities that we share every day, to respect each other, to share with each other, to help each other and to protect others who are in need. The question goes, “Where do the Human Rights begin? The answer is, on the exact location you are, at your home, places where you meet people. The places we live, the neighborhoods, the school or the Universities we go to, the factory we work, the fields where we walk in the evenings, the market where we buy things, these are the places where every man, woman and children deserve equal rights, equal opportunity and human dignity without being discriminated. Should these rights have no validity in these places, they also have no meaning somewhere else. 

Denying rights because somebody is a Nepalese, because somebody is un-skilled, because somebody is an immigrant worker is a scandal. If it is still visible in today’s world, there is something wrong with the justice system. Gulf countries cannot punish somebody because they are poor, they cannot deny the rights of seasonal workers because they are too poor to raise voice.  This is the absolute violation of international Human Rights Law. 

The greatest fault is not to be poor, rather it is to be ignorant, it is to deny rights of others, it is to act immoral and it is to lack the feeling of humanity despite having the highest level of education, as some countries show towards immigrant workers.

Source of Data:
The National Geographic Visual History Book
Amnesty International, Timeline of Human Rights