BIKAS C SANYAL

312 June Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture

HUMAN RIGHTS
Human Rights and Social Justice:
International Context
BIKAS C SANYAL
I
shall talk about Human Rights in the
context of the present international politi-
cal, economic and financial crises. I shall
discuss the role of international organizations
like UNESCO in building a universal culture
of peace and human rights. This role should
guarantee the implementation of human
rights, within the Organizations mandate, of
the most vulnerable group of populations. I
shall also take into consideration the emerg-
ing ethical and social challenges. The diverse
socio-economic, political and cultural back-
ground of different countries, of course,
makes it a challenging task. But I shall try.
Let me first dwell on the historical con-
text of Human Rights and Social Justice.
Frankly speaking, the aspiration for and pro-
vision of human rights for social justice has
been recorded for thousands of years in Asia
and abroad. Asia, however, was the first. Em-
peror Cyrus of Persia (598-529 BC) is recog-
nized as the first promoter of human rights in
sixth century BC. This information is found in
the Cyrus Cylinder. Then comes Emperor
Asoka of India (265-232 BC). That he estab-
lished the Law of Piety (Human Rights) is
found in his Edicts. Then, again, the Islamic
Prophet Muhammad instituted the rights and
responsibilities of the Muslim, Jewish and
other communities including the Pagan com-
munities for living together and promoting
religious freedom and security of women in
the Constitution of Medina (622 AD).
From the 17th to the first quarter of the
20th century, the following instruments were
constructed in the West, namely, the British
Bill of Rights (1689), The US Virginia Decla-
ration of Rights (1776), The French Declara-
tion of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens
(1789), The International Humanitarian Law:
the Law of Geneva (1864 and 1949), the Law
of Hague (1899 and 1907), and the League of
Nations established in 1919 for promoting
many aspects of human rights. The Interna-
tional Federation of Human Rights was estab-
lished in 1922 with 10 national organizations.
Today it comprises 155 centres in more than
100 countries.
The most important event of modern
times for protection of human rights was The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) of the United Nations adopted in
1948 with 30 articles: articles 3-21 dealing
with civil and political rights, 22-28 with eco-
nomic, social and cultural rights. The UDHR
was drafted by people from different cultures
and traditions, including a US Roman Catho-
lic, a Chinese Confucian philosopher, a
French Zionist, a representative from the
Arab League and drawing upon advice from
thinkers such as Mahatma Gandhi, the father
of Indian nation.
The promulgation at the international
level of laws and treaties that followed may be
mentioned here. The principal of these are the
Human Rights Law (1966) leading to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (1966) and International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(1966); Convention on Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD,
adopted 1966, enforced 1969); Convention
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2011 313 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimi-
nation Against Women (CEDAW, enforced
1981); United Nations Convention Against
Torture (CAT, adopted and enforced 1984);
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC,
adopted and enforced 1989); International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of their
Families (ICRMW, adopted 1990, enforced
2003). The Optional Protocol to the Interna-
tional Covenant of Economic, Social and Cul-
tural Rights adopted by UN General Assem-
bly in December 2008 strengthened the justi-
fiability of the rights to work, health, educa-
tion, housing, culture, gender equality, decent
life and human dignity.
Human Rights and Social
Justice in Asia
Independence movements of the Asian
countries under colonial rule advocated self-
determination and human rights (During
Japanese war the Chinese Communist Party
enacted human rights ordinances in liberated
areas, to give one example).
After independence all the Asian states
naturally adopted constitutions with human
rights clauses. However, after independence
when the fighters became the new rulers, self-
determination, nationalism and national inte-
gration were emphasized in some countries
rather than human rights. The ideas of Asian
culture and Asian values emerged.
The concept of Asian values wanted to
give more importance to economic, social
and cultural rights than to civil and political
rights. However, the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action adopted by the World
conference on Human Rights in 1993 rejected
the application of concepts of Asian culture
and Asian values and asserted that All
human rights are universal, indivisible and
interdependent and interrelated and The
World Conference on Human Rights reaf-
firms the importance of ensuring the univer-
sality, objectivity and non-selectivity of the
consideration of human rights issues (Paras 5
and 32, Section I, (declaration). However, the
progress leaves much to be desired.
Human Rights Record in South Asia,
World Report 2009 of Human
Rights Watch
The Report finds all countries violating
human rights in some form or other. A study
founded by Save the Children-Swedish
Branch and published by the Asian Centre
for Human Rights gives the results of a survey
on the situation in respect of nine rights from
a comparative point of view in South Asia.
The Table below gives the result:
NHRIS: National Human Rights
Institutions; Rank 7 for having worst hu-
man rights, 1 for having best human rights.
One could note that India and Maldives
are in the best position whereas Sri Lanka is in
the worst position. Human rights records are
now being taken seriously, asserting or at-
tempting to demonstrate adherence to interna-
tional human rights norms (See White Papers
from China on the topic, especially National
Plan of Action for Human Rights, China,
Country
Sri
Lanka
Bangla-
desh
Bhutan Pakistan Maldives Nepal India
Rank
Rights
Political
Freedom
Rights to
Life
Admin.
of Justice
NHRIS
Press
Freedom
Women
Rights of
Child
Human
Rights
Defenders
Minorities
Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4 7 6 5 3 2 1
7 6 2 5 1 3 4
4 6 7 1 5 3 2
4 6 7 5 2 3 1
6 5 7 4 3 2 1
6 4 1 7 3 2 5
7 2 6 3 5 4
7 5 6 4 2 1 3
7 5 6 4
- 3 2
52 46 43 41 23 24 23
South Asia Human Rights Index 2008
(Asian Centre for Human Rights, August 2008)
1
BIKAS C SANYAL
314 June Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture
2009-2010). Significant progress has
been made since UDHR as has been noted by
the Amnesty International in its report of
2009 on the Asia-Pacific region as follows:
Under the increasing political and economic
pressure, many people in the Asia-Pacific
region turned the international human rights
framework to bolster their efforts to secure
greater dignity for themselves and others
(Asia and the Pacific, Amnesty International
Report 2009, page 5).
Challenges facing Asia in the current
context of global economic and
financial crisis
The challenges spawned by unregulated
globalization, especially in the social and
ethical domain, are mainly the following:
Social exploitation by the dominant pri-
vate sector and multinationals and reduced
emphasis on state role in education, health
and social service;
Privatization of public services leading
to deprivation of the poor and the
marginalized;
Excessive consumerism causing envi-
ronmental disaster (pollution, climate change
leading to water shortages and degradation of
land on the one hand, and floods, raising of
sea-level and loss of habitable land on the
other), corruption and marginalization;
Underinvestment in agriculture, empha-
sis on mining, manufacturing, communica-
tion, financial and trade sectors;
Deprivation of the indigenous people of
their land and natural resources;
Inequality among social groups
(women, rural people, migrant workers, eth-
nic and religious minorities) disturbing peace,
creating conflicts, religious fundamentalism
and terrorism.
The current financial crisis due to
unregulated opening up of the economy for
globalization in its turn has led to poverty
aggravated by reduction in development as-
sistance, repatriation of migrant workers from
export-driven economies and drastic reduc-
tion of foreign remittances, unemployment
due to slowing down of economies, food cri-
sis, politically manipulated distribution of
food aid and negligence of education and
health care and cut in social security with no
safety nets.
The above factors are responsible for po-
litical instability and mass violence which has
led to media censorship and restrictions on
civil society in certain countries as Irene Khan
in her report on Amnesty International (2009)
has noted. I quote:
Deprivation, inequality, injustice, insecurity
and oppression are the hallmarks of poverty.
They are clearly human rights problems and
will not yield to economic measures alone.
They demand strong political will and a com-
prehensive response integrating political,
economic, social and environmental
issues with an overarching framework of
human rights and the rule of law.
Suggested role of UNESCO and hints
for implementation with
sectors responsible
UNESCO should continue its efforts to
integrate human rights approach to all its
programmes. These should cover all rights
relevant to education, science, social science,
culture and communications sectors of
UNESCO. The work it is doing through semi-
nars, conferences, workshops etc. (See for
example, UNESCOs Work on Education for
Peace and Non-Violence, on Human Rights
and related topics providing a list of 23 recent
publications: UNESCO, 2003-2008) should
be continued, updated and oriented towards
action as hinted below. It should continue
taking special responsibility with regard to
the following rights and programmes:
Right to education (including moral and
ethical education, peace education and educa-
tion for democracy; human rights education;
environmental education as integral part of
formal, non-formal and informal education,
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2011 315 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture
entrepreneurial education and bioethics)
(Sector responsible: Education)
Right to participate in cultural life (pro-
tection of cultural diversity and cultural prop-
erty) and the rights of intellectuals (Sector
responsible: Culture)
Right to freedom of opinion and expres-
sion including right to seek, receive and im-
part information using modern technology
(web site, internet etc.) (Sector responsible:
Communication)
Right to enjoy the benefits of scientific
progress and its applications including access
to digital forms of knowledge (Sector respon-
sible: Science)
Right of women: (Responsible: All
sectors)
Adoption of standard-setting instru-
ments for accountability of potential violators
including corporations and improving them in
areas of UNESCOs mandate and develop-
ment of their effective monitoring mechanism
(Responsible: All sectors)
Promotion of research and dissemina-
tion of knowledge through workshop, orien-
tation seminars, conferences etc. on human
rights in all aspects relevant to UNESCO with
special emphasis on empowerment of poten-
tial victims of human rights violation and
enlightenment of potential human rights vio-
lators (business, military, ideological and re-
ligious extremists etc.) and continuous updat-
ing of the competences of the protectors of
human rights (civil servants, lawyers, politi-
cians, NGOs and UNESCO staff) with devel-
opment of concrete plans of action: (Respon-
sible: All sectors especially, Social science;
the Social Science sectors support for the
recently introduced programme on Interna-
tional Understanding for Human Unity in this
Institute is a good example)
Strengthening partnerships with other
UN bodies, especially Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights, intergov-
ernmental organizations, regional bodies, and
national authorities and human rights
institutions, UNESCO National Commis-
sions and, most importantly, with private sec-
tor including philanthropreneurs for fund-
ing human rights protection programmes (All
sectors)
Co-ordinating the action plans of
different sectors of the organization
Maintaining rationally allocated budget
for implementation of the programmes and
facilitating mobilization of extra-budgetary
resources.
Lastly, UNESCO should appreciate that
success in the implementation of UDHR will
depend on the national authorities. External
imposition can backfire. Focus should be on
the conscientization of people through the
programmes mentioned above.
Enabling factors
Political pluralism and participatory de-
mocracy are institutional foundations neces-
sary for protection of human rights in all its
aspects but not sufficient as will be observed
from the following examples. India, during its
history became the home in chronological
order of the following people:
People who settled on the bank of the
river Indus whom the Persians and Arabs
later gave the name Hindus (second millen-
nium BC)
The Buddhists and the Jains (6th cen-
tury BC) and the Jews (2nd century BC)
The Christians (Ist century AD) follow-
ing St Thomas who arrived first
The Persians and the Zoroastrians (end
of 7th century AD) and the Moslems (8th
century AD)
The French Noble laureate Romain
Rolland said: If there is one place on the face
of the earth where all the dreams of living men
have found a home from the earliest days
when man began the dream of existence, it is
India. The countrys constitution provides
political pluralism and participatory democ-
racy and has incorporated and continuously
updated almost all the important elements of
BIKAS C SANYAL
316 June Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture
UDHR and the attached instruments in the
constitution.
The country has as the head of state a
woman, as head of the ruling party a woman
from a minority community, as head of the
Parliament a woman from the lowest class of
the society (dalit), as head of government a
man from a minority community, as head of
defence also one from a minority community.
This has not happened by chance but through
the strength of its democratic institutions.
Even then, the country has human rights prob-
lems. We must not lose sight of the impor-
tance of the UDHR and should constantly
struggle to protect them.
Impact of Swami Vivekananda on human
rights on the constitutional interpretation
by the Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court has used
Vivekananda to interpret the Right to Equal-
ity and reservation for the Scheduled Castes
in Akhil Bharatiya Soshit Karamchari Sangh
(Rly.) v. Union of India by Justice Krishna
Iyer (1981). The Court has also quoted
Vivekananda to justify the reservation given
to Scheduled Castes in State of Karnataka v.
Appa Balu Ingale (1995) as well as to justify
the reservation policy of Other Backward
Castes (OBCs) in the most famous Indra
Sawhney v. Union of India (1992). The Court
has used it for the purpose of interpreting the
definition of what Education is under the
Right to Education in P. A. Inamdar v. State
of Maharashtra (2005).
The Court has also used Swamijis phi-
losophy to enunciate the need of the courts to
be sensitive to injustice in Balbir Kaur v. Steel
Authority of India and on the rights and duties
of teachers in Avinash Nagra v. Navodaya
Vidyalaya Samiti as indeed the nature and
meaning, responsibility of being a citizen of
India and the duties of those in government in
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Of-
ficers Welfare Council v. State of U.P. (1997).
The Court has relied on Swami
Vivekananda to define Socialism in the con-
stitution and the Welfare State and its inspira-
tion in Murlidhar Dayandeo Kesekar v.
Vishwanath Pandu Barde and Dharwad Dist.
Literate Daily Wages Employees Association
v. State of Karnataka (1990).
A quote from Vivekananda was also the
first line in the famous judgement of Justice
Verma in Ismael Faruqui v. Union of India
(also known as the Babri Masjid Judgement).
In fact, the quote about Swami
Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi being
great Hindus while their teachings and life
being example of great tolerance made out
famously in S. R. Bommai v. Union of India,
so as to define the conception of Secularism
in India, being not antithetical to religion but
of tolerance, is now an oft-quoted, almost
legal principle, by the Court (1994). The pres-
ence of Swami Vivekananda in the interpreta-
tion of the Constitution is surprisingly large
for a person who died in the year 1902, nearly
45 years before India achieved its
independence, and nearly 48 years before the
Constitution was brought into effect and
India became a Republic.
The rights are too important to ignore.
The goals are to be kept as they are and even
expanded if the situation demands. Con-
cerned citizens, institutions, governments and
UNESCO have to move forward to achieve
them. The path is very difficult like walking
on the edge of a razor. But UNESCO must
pursue its noble mission with renewed vigour
in building a universal culture of peace and
human rights.
* Mr Bikas C Sanyal is Vice-Chairman, UNESCO International Institute for Capacity-Building in
Africa, formerly Special Adviser of UNESCO Director General for Higher Education. This
article is based on the text of his lecture delivered at the Institute on 3 January this year.