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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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Human Rights Dayby Jane SherwinOn the 10th of December 1948 the United Nations proclaimed a "Declaration of Human Rights". There had been Declarations and Proclamations before, most notably the English Magna Carta in 1215 and Habeas Corpus in 1679, the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, the French Declaration des Droits D’Homme in 1789 and the Communist Manifesto in 1848. After the First World War the League of Nations was set up in an effort to keep the peace. But it failed. After the Second World War 51 states came together to form the United Nations, aware of the fact that "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind". The committee, which drew up the Declaration, was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the late President of the USA. Theirs had been a marriage made for dynastic reasons. Eleanor was no beauty but her husband, Franklin Delano, was a handsome, sophisticated man and he openly carried on a series of affairs. Eleanor bore this public humiliation with great dignity and devoted herself to many worthwhile causes, becoming a public figure in her own right. It would seem to be more than coincidence that the first paragraph of the Declaration states: "Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justices and peace in the world". The first Article repeats the word "dignity": "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". Many more states have joined the United Nations since 1948, and many more Declarations and Protocols have been written. Are we any further forward in the pursuit of peace and freedom? The American John Dewey said: "If you want to establish some conception of a society, go find out who is in gaol". Mahatma Gandhi said that you could assess a civilization by the manner in which it dealt with its minorities. The persecution of minorities and the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience continue unabated, as does torture and genocide. Swathes of people around the world live in poverty and deprivation, children are used as slave-labour and soldiers and sexual objects; and through the glories of the immediacy of the mass media we are persistently fed this information. At one time democratic elections were felt to be the answer. But powerful nations tend to recognise only those elections that produce the results that they, themselves, want. In 1973, democratically elected President Allende of Chile was deposed by a military coup backed by the USA and General Pinochet put in his place, to become responsible for the ordering of mass torture and "disappearances" and later prosecuted for "crimes against humanity". Aung San Suu Kyi is the democratically elected president of Burma but she has for decades been kept under house arrest by the military junta in power. Presently, the democratically elected members of Hamas, in the Palestinian parliament, are causing much concern. As for the United Nations, themselves, the "End Timers" in the USA, who base notions on the Book of Revelations and seem to have the ear of President Bush, believe that the UN secretary-general is the anti-Christ. But however helpless and ineffectual the UN may seem at times, witness in particular Rwanda and Darfur, at least the lines of communication remain open: "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war". The original 1948 Declaration is still a valid standard to aim for. Like Christ, himself, "a light shining in the darkness". A Prayer found scribbled on a piece of wrapping paper, near the body "0 Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will |
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