Human Rights Not to be Violated

 

World Human Rights Day / 10 December 2020

Human Rights Not to be Violated

Fr Dr M. D. Thomas

Director, Institute of Harmony and peace Studies, New Delhi

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The world celebrates ‘Human Rights day’, across the nations, on the 10th day of December. This celebration is grounded in the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’, declared by the United Nations Organization in 1948.

This decisive declaration enjoys the credit of being the first ever enunciation of human rights on the global level and of being the most translated document in the world, after the Bible.

The formal establishment of Human Rights day in 1950 placed a clarion call to the member states and organizations to celebrate this historic day across the globe, as a common ethical standard of achievement for peoples and nations.

As we know, we humans are born with a series of rights, like food, clothing and shelter; health, education and employment, together with privacy, respect and dignity. Further, freedom of thought, word and deed, along with freedom of conscience, choice and decision, are the sacred rights of the humans, too.

These rights are granted to us by the natural law, the Constitution of India and the Charter of the United Nations. Violating these rights is a serious crime against humanity and divinity, in one shot.  

All the same, we know too well that millions and millions of people in India and world over are brutally deprived of their fundamental rights, due to the highly selfish, callous and irresponsible behaviour of millions of people on the other side.

These marginalized and oppressed sisters and brothers of ours are indeed a living question mark about the real relevance of what governance, administration, religion, faith and spirituality are all about.

It is high time the custodians and stakeholders of all the responsible sectors of the society realized that it is their primary duty to measure out the rightful share of life to the violated brethren of our country and society, sooner the better.

Women, children, labourers, vendors and farmers as well as the homeless dwellers of the slums and the streets, along with the beggars, need to be attended to, on a priority basis.

In fact, the very idea of rights implies an obligation or duty on the other side of the coin. I have my right when you perform your duty and you have your right when I perform my duty.

Acting on the logic of give and take is the way of balancing the rights and duties in our lives. This is the very same way of maintaining the relations among individuals, families, institutions, communities, nations and other units of the society, especially between the ruling class and the ruled masses.

Therefore, treat the other the way you like to be treated. Or better, ‘do to the other what you would have him or her do to you’ is the golden rule of the world.

The World Human Rights day is an occasion for the citizens of India and of the world society to pledge anew to perform their respective duties, so that the rights of others will remain safe and sound.

In special, all possible means have to be applied to reach out to the unfortunate persons who are deprived of their human rights. Those who enjoy their human rights require being agents of change, in favour of a better tomorrow, for our country and the society at large. 

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to interfaith relations, national integration and social harmony, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’ (p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’(p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’  (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

 

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