By Father John Flynn, LC
ROME, MARCH 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Working out how to protect human rights remains a thorny problem, as recent events demonstrate. On Wednesday the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Sudan’s leader is accused of being responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of people in the Dafur region of the country in past years.
Bashir reacted to the move, explained a Washington Post article Thursday, by expelling many of the foreign aid organizations that provide assistance to the refugees, numbered at more than 1 million, in Dafur.
On the other extreme, in Canada human rights tribunals are under attack for running amok. Margaret Wente, a columnist for Canada’s Globe and Mail Newspaper, described the plight of John Fulton, a gym owner in St. Catharines, Ontario, in a March 3 article.
Fulton, who runs a women-only gym, is faced with heavy legal expenses in order to fight an action taken before the Ontario Human Rights Commission for having refused membership to a man who is a «preoperative transsexual.»
Wente explained that while people who initiate such claims have their legal expenses financed by the state, the defendants can face costs of up to $100,000.
The gym case is far from an isolated episode, Wente noted, and repeated instances of such frivolous claims are laying a heavy burden on Canadian businesses.
Meanwhile, in Australia, last year the federal government appointed a committee to investigate if the country needs a charter of rights. The head of the committee, Jesuit Father Frank Brennan, recently warned of an «evangelical fervor» in the legal community for a bill of rights, reported an article in the Australian newspaper, Feb. 27.
Father Brennan declared that there is no clear evidence that the two charters already in existence, in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, had done anything to better the protection of rights.
According to the article, he warned the Victorian model was «a device for the delivery of a soft-Left sectarian agenda — a device which will be discarded or misconstrued whenever the rights articulated do not comply with that agenda.»
State Department report
On Feb. 25 the U.S. State Department published its 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report is submitted annually by the department to the U.S. Congress and provides an overview of human rights around the world.
Concerning Sudan, which came into the news with the warrant issued against the country’s president, the report commented that the conflict in Darfur entered its fifth year in 2008 and according to United Nations data, the conflict has displaced close to 3 million people.
Over the years government forces have bombed villages, killed persons, and collaborated with militias to raze villages, according to the State Department. As well, the government has systematically obstructed humanitarian efforts.
Zimbabwe was another country singled out by the report. It termed the government as «illegitimate» and accused it of «the systematic abuse of human rights.»
«Civil society and humanitarian organizations were targeted by government and militant groups for their efforts to protect citizens’ rights and provide life-saving humanitarian assistance,» said the report.
The State Department also accused the regime run by President Robert Mugabe of manipulating the political process through violence, corruption and vote fraud.
In Asia, China’s human rights record «remained poor and worsened in some areas,» according to the report. The list of abuses in the report was long: limitations on freedom of speech and freedom of the press; extrajudicial killings and torture; coerced confessions of prisoners; and the use of forced labor.
The State Department also accused the Chinese government of increased detention and harassment of dissidents, petitioners, human rights defenders, and defense lawyers.
In fact, overall in 2008, which was supposed to be a showcase year for the government with the Beijing Olympics, China’s human rights record was worse, particularly when it came to the repression of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and Tibet.
Vietnam’s government also came in for criticism. The report commented that restrictions are in place regarding political activity and opposition groups have little freedom. Individuals are arbitrarily detained and there is no right to a fair trial.
In addition, authorities continue to limit freedom of expression, both by individuals and the press. Independent human rights organizations are prohibited and the government limits workers’ rights.
Losing ground
Turning to Europe, the State Department observed that in several ex-Soviet countries, previous gains for human rights and democracy were reversed, or the slide toward authoritarianism continued.
In particular the report said that during last August’s conflict that began in the Georgian separatist enclave of South Ossetia, military operations by Georgian and Russian forces involved the use of indiscriminate force and resulted in civilian casualties.
In many countries in this region, the report continued, governments still impede the freedom of the press. In Russia, for example, a number of journalists were killed or brutally attacked during 2008. And in Belarus, President Lukashenka signed a new media law that could further restrict press freedoms.
Turning to the Middle East, the State Department said that in Egypt, there was a decline in the government’s respect for freedoms of speech, press, association, and religion during the year.
In Iran the report accused the government of intensifying its campaign of intimidation against reformers, academics, journalists, and dissidents through means such as detentions, torture and secret trials.
Regarding the Americas, the State Department noted an increase in the suppression of freedom of speech and of assembly in Cuba. That government also increased its use of brief detainments and subsequent release without charges to intimidate activists, according to the report.
Venezuela was also singled out for mention, and the report noted that during the past year the National Assembly passed 26 laws that featured clauses reducing the scope of authority of elected officials and promoting centralization of power.
As well, the report commented that the government drew international criticism for having declared 272 candidates for municipal and gubernatorial elections ineligible to run. The majority of those eliminated were opposition candidates.
Added to this there were numerous threats to freedom of expression in Venezuela. Government officials, the report said, publicly harassed and intimidated independent media outlets and journalists on state-owned media.
Religious rights
Respect for human rights also includes protecting religious freedom, as a March 4 press release from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) pointed out.
The OSCE just held a meeting dedicated to the topic of intolerance and discrimination against Christians, the first OSCE meeting focusing specifically on the subject.
«What came out clearly from this meeting is that intolerance and discrimination against Christians is manifested in various forms across the OSCE area, said Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which organized the meeting.
Participants also highlighted inaccurate portrayals of Christian identity and values in the media and political discourse, leading to misunderstandings and prejudice, the press release explained.
It’s just over 60 years since, on Dec. 10, 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Then, as now, the need to protect basic liberties is an urgent task.
