Whither Go Human Rights in 2009?

By Margaret “Peggy” Misch, recipient of HRCNC’s 2008 International Human Rights Award
Delivered December 9, 2008

I wish to thank all those who had enough faith in me to consider me worthy to follow in the path of the number of awardees who have preceded me in receiving this award. Slater Newman has dedicated the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina to remind people and officials in this state of entitlements due every person by governments and by every other individual since 1996.

Times may be changing. One sign of change has occurred in the Human Rights Coalition of N.C.
I have poked fun at Slater’s mailings of the Human Rights Coalition of N.C. because letters would come with U.S. flag stamps flying on the envelopes. I would constantly remind Slater to put the stamps upside down to display the international naval signal all vessels use to show their distress by flying the ships’ flags upside down. Perhaps my joshing has made a difference or times are improving because recent Human Rights envelopes now sport flags of different U.S. states.

Today is Eid al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice, a religious festival celebrated by Muslims and Druze worldwide in commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah. Today all over the world Muslims who have the means will sacrifice an animal as a reminder of Ibrahim's obedience to Allah. The meat is then shared with family and friends as well as with the poorer members of the community.

This afternoon the oral argument in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Maher Arar was scheduled. Arar v. Ashcroft is a federal lawsuit challenging the rendition by the U.S. government of a Canadian citizen to Syria, where he was tortured, forced falsely to confess and released after one year without ever being charged. On January 22, 2004, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit, and oral argument was scheduled for today at 3 p.m. in New York City. As a signatory of the International Convention against Torture, the United States has an obligation not to send detainees to a nation that regularly practices torture against prisoners. We await the outcome of this hearing.

On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the nation of Israel and the Nakba, or the Catastrophe,
the depopulation and destruction of 531 villages in Palestine resulting in more than 750,000 refugees not
allowed to return to their homes since 1948.

This week, from December 5 to 11, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation of Stockholm, Sweden, is recognizing four women noted for human rights work. Yesterday was the 2008 Right Livelihood Award Ceremony, dubbed the “Alternative Nobel” in Stockholm. Among the women awardees is Amy Goodman, noted “for developing an innovative model of truly independent political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.”

The Week of Action, December 7 to 13, called by Jobs with Justice for a People’s Bailout Now, is
demanding the President and Congress work to:

1. •pass a large economic stimulus/recovery package, on the scale of the emergency we face;
   

2. •pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA);
   

3. •stop evictions due to foreclosures;
   

4. •take emergency action so people losing jobs don't lose health care;
   

5. •lay the groundwork for a long-term recovery program including: green jobs and clean energy; restoration of worker justice, including the Employee Free Choice Act and other reforms; health care for all; retirement security; reregulation of the financial system and making the speculators pay to clean-up their mess; fair policies on trade and migration, including renegotiating NAFTA and other trade agreements, to protect worker rights and the environment, ending immigration and customs enforcement raids and supporting the rights of all workers, here and abroad.
   

Many of these demands will remain to be addressed in 2009.

So what are human rights, and what do any of these events and anniversaries have to do with human rights?

Article I of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

1. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
   

Human rights refers to the basic rights and freedoms, such as civil and political rights; and social, cultural and economic rights, such as the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work and the right to education. I believe the future will add the right to water as people become aware that water is a precious resource, necessary to use wisely and share.

Most of us understood that no matter who would be elected president, those of us working for human rights for everyone would need to continue our work because of all the unfair laws, restrictions and appointed judges put in place during the past eight years in the United States. Among the highest priorities are removing the Military Commissions Act, restoring the Bill of Rights and addressing the right to health care, quality education, decent housing and access to work with a living wage, among other needs.

Analysts write and groups discuss strategies to ensure appropriate measures are taken in the new administration.

The American Civil Liberties Union has an online petition for individuals to send to the new administration and Congress:

1. “I call for a recommitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes that ‘the inherent dignity and ... the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.’ I accept and respect the principles outlined in the Declaration and call on my government and the newly elected President of the United States to recommit to the Declaration and lead the world by example.”
   

I encourage people to add their names, as the ACLU says, to “a recommitment by the U.S. to the principles and ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is essential not only for improving U.S. standing in the world, but, more importantly, for its promise to ensure equality and justice for all at home.”  (See www.aclu.org for other actions and ideas.)

According to a piece this month by Nat Hentoff, historian, novelist and columnist for the Village Voice, on November 13 the National Religious Campaign Against Torture assembled more than 50 delegations of religious leaders in Washington — from Rabbi Gerry Serotta, chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, to
Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America — to tell Obama to sign an executive order to abolish torture as soon as he gets into the Oval Office.

Obviously, the Middle East presents many areas of concern where the United States might play a positive role.

During a meeting commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president of the U.N. General Assembly, spoke out last month against Israel for its repressive actions in the Occupied West Bank and blockage of humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said, "What is being done to the Palestinian people seems to me to be a version of the hideous policy of apartheid.” He also stated, “I believe that the failure to create a Palestinian state as promised is the single greatest failure in the history of the United Nations."

Analysts on the Middle East know a change in policy must occur. Uri Avnery, journalist, peace activist, former member of the Knesset and leader of Gush Shalom, stakes out a 16-point specific peace plan to establish two viable states for Israel and Palestine, with Israel’s withdrawal to the pre-1967 line, in his “Memo for Obama,” published in the current issue of the progressive Jewish-American monthly Tikkun.

Other Israelis seeking a solution, such as Ilan Pappé, professor of history at the University of Exeter, UK, former senior lecturer in political science at Haifa University in Israel from 1984 to 2007, defend the Palestinian story and analysis of the events of the 1948 War and argue for a one-state solution for Israel-Palestine. Pappé summarizes: “On the 60th anniversary we — Palestinians, Israelis and whoever cares for this land — should demand that Israel’s 1948 crime against humanity be included in everyone’s history books so as to stop the present crimes from continuing before it is too late.”

It seems to me the United States has not played the role of an honest broker between representatives of these governments and should allow the United Nations to play the role of facilitator. What input do you have to this discussion?

Here is a prod for us from Michael Ratner, attorney and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, regarding the torture program of the Bush administration, from his book, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution By Book (The New Press): “Its indirect victims were not only those who were tortured but all of us who care about morality, a government under law and our own safety.”

Noam Chomsky explains in detail in his November piece, “The Election, Economy, War, and Peace,” many issues facing the new administration. He notes: “In Bolivia, as in Haiti, efforts to promote democracy, social justice, and cultural rights, and to bring about desperately needed structural and institutional changes are, naturally, bitterly opposed by the traditional rulers, the Europeanized mostly white elite in the Eastern provinces, the site of most of the natural resources currently desired by the West. Also naturally, their quasi-secessionist movement is supported by Washington, which once again scarcely conceals its distaste for democracy when it does not conform to strategic and economic interests. The generalization is a staple of serious scholarship but does not make its way to commentary about the revered ‘freedom agenda.’”

Chomsky remarks that the Union of South American Republics reported, "For the first time in South America's history, the countries of our region are deciding how to resolve our problems, without the presence of the United States."

On its website, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee lists “5 Reasons Why We Must Keep Fighting After Bush Leaves Office”:

1.The damage done to constitutional protections, civil liberties and human rights is extensive. Repairing the damage will be a long, slow process, especially with the new administration focusing on the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2.Historically, executive powers are often expanded but rarely reduced. It takes enormous pressure from the people to convince Congress and the President to reinstate the checks and balances required by the Constitution.

3.Congress has been complicit in the Bush administration’s constitutional violations. To reverse these policies, implemented in the name of the “war on terror,” we must educate our congressional representatives and hold them accountable to their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution.

4.President-Elect Obama has promised to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center, but creating a process for trying and releasing the more than 250 remaining prisoners that is constitutional, timely and safe will be complicated and difficult after years of the Bush administration’s fear-mongering. We must provide vocal support for such efforts to counteract this culture of fear.

5.If we don’t fight to undo the damage to civil liberties, human rights and other constitutional protections now, it will only get worse in the future.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation urges restoring the constitutional balance of power between the President and Congress and working with Congress to ban cluster bombs, to restore habeas corpus, to end unconstitutional spying and to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Its “Transition and Opportunity in 2009” includes urging the president to sign the global treaty banning cluster bombs, to pursue comprehensive diplomatic negotiations with Iran and to renegotiate the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.

Howard Zinn states that “Obama will not fulfill that potential for change unless he is enveloped by a social movement, which is angry enough, powerful enough, insistent enough, that he fills his abstract phrases about change with some real content.”

How do we reach the incoming administration to make our voices heard? As others have said, individuals organized must put their issues clearly before those in power. I believe we must make all elected officials accountable. I am skeptical of the Barack Obama Presidential Transition Team incorporating suggestions offered from a website. According to a reliable source, there is an actual office in Chicago where a person can write to the Transition Team: 

230 South Dearborn Street
38th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604

Is everyone in this room able to write an appeal for at least one human right to be considered from his or her organization to that address? 

Whither go human rights in 2009? I answer, “Where you push them.”

If we can bring human rights to the fore to make a change, then tonight’s event will not have been in vain.

Thank you.