Introduction
Over centuries, various governments have held convections, which aim at addressing various issues concerning human rights a result of which various human rights codes are established.
Attempts to come with harmonized bill of human rights has existed throughout history since ancient times with religious people contributing vigorously compared to the people possessing political intents.
In its original form, the document housing the international human rights declarations had its contents resting on four pillars, notably: “dignity, liberty, equality, and brotherhood” (Ishay 2004, p.359).
As from 1948, when the birth of universal declaration of human rights took place, people have passed over the concepts of human rights to even the smallest units of the society across the globe.
Fundamentally, considering the anticipated benefits of adopting an internationally acceptable code of human rights that would ensure equality of the human race irrespective of the age, sex, nationality, culture or economic background (Donnelly 2002, p.59), critics of the declarations of human rights are anticipated.
However, the case is different. Conflicting meanings and interpretations of human rights prompted emergence of varying controversies that in a big way, dominate human rights debates.
Skeptics challenges the origin, contribution of globalization to the advancement of human rights, tension posed on security due to strict adherence to codes of human rights, human rights contribution to universality evaluated in relation to cultural relativity, critical roles played by socialists with regard to Human rights, and the “enlightenment legacy of human rights” (Ishay 2004, p.360).
For different societies; being characterized by diverse culture and hence forces of morality, to be guided to achieve propulsion along a familiar path aimed at achieving social transformation, common principles that spell out the various codes of conduct must be in existence.
Human rights declarations avail Mechanisms, which while invoked according to their architects, substantially prevent derailment of societies from the paths leading towards social transformation globally despite the fact that they suffer deficiency in the power to enforce them.
In the light of all the mentioned critics above, even though definitions put forward for the international human rights have played a major milestone toward social transformation of the society across the globe, their contribution in the realization of positive development to social transformations face amicable challenges and hence a regression rather than a positive development.
Reasons why it is not a positive development
Precise direct reflection of human rights declarations in the laws governing the international community does not exist. In the occurrence of statutory violation of human rights, it is beyond any reasonable doubt that states cannot institute internal inquiries into such atrocities that would guarantee administration of justice to the perpetrators of the atrocities.
For example, the Rwanda genocide in 1994 is a reminiscent of how key international rule of law defining the rights of an individual is applicable to the settlement of international disputes involving violation of human rights to the worst levels.
Unfortunately, if Rwanda was allowed to institute an investigation commission within its borders from the start, no amicable fruits could have been achieved. In the absence of intervention of international law, replication of acts of ethnic cleansing would occur in a state severally and in some encounters severely reduce the human population numbers.
Failure of taking action against perpetrators of injustices to innocent citizens has the capacity of inculcating human rights violations into the norms of a society.
The belief that cleansing of the entire adversary ethnic group is the ultimate solution, in situations where a particular whole ethnic group considers as facing offences from a different ethnic group, deserves change.
The society deserves a transformation in a manner that it becomes evident to members of that society that they have a communal, obligation to respect human life.
Such transformation is only possible if the responsible people or body works on a strategy for fear instillation in individuals. Unfortunately, fear is installable if failures to honor the set-out obligations are punishable.
Peskin (2005, p. 213) notes that “…the tribunals’ lack of police powers gives states wide latitude to withhold the vital assistance the tribunals need to investigate atrocities and bring suspects to trial”.
The challenge of absence of police force, solely, commanded by international commissions that settle disputes entangling human rights violations require immediate action.
Consequently, probabilities of attainment of positive development of social transformations under the guidance of enumerated human rights codes in the human rights declaration document would receive major boost.
Laws regulating human rights fail to guarantee security to the witness signifying a regression rather than a positive development.
The Rwandese issue further illustrates this based on the witnessed failure to guarantee security provisions to the witnesses of the genocide both to the side of Hutus and Tutsi.if citizens themselves had not given up in extending acts of animosity towards their adversaries and therefore hungered for peace and reconciliations, victimization of the witnesses was anticipated.
Facts backed by evidence are required in any legal proceedings. People have the right to testify for injustice having been committed against them of which the testimonies act as a vital source of evidence and not a cause of the witnesses’ prejudice in fear of victimization.
Established international courts that deal with matters of human rights violations fail to protect satisfactorily the victims against further injustice emanating from the very evidence they give at international courts being perpetrated unto them.
Ways of transforming the society into burying the spirit of revenge once human rights violators mainly victors seem held accountable for their actions need enforcement. It is particularly challenging to testify against a plaintiff whose close allies’ remains at large.
Moreover, the extent to which the notion put forward by then the United Nations USA ambassador, Madeleine Albright, as he looked forward toward the establishment of Hague tribunal, that the new court “will be no victor’s tribunal” (Peskin 2005, p.214) is subject to ridicule.
Queries pertaining to the extent in which the victor governments contributes to sabotage of operations of crimes against humanity investigation tribunals through dwindled cooperation need responses as contribution of human rights declarations are evaluated for the key roles they play towards social transformation.
Social transformation entails change of the ways people relate to one another bearing in mind their cultural, political and economic diversity, a case that appears different based on the codification of human rights. Such diversities are not just restricted within internal boundaries of a nation but also across the borders.
The bill of human rights has the mandate to regulate the way persons within a nation as well as international person’s relate to one another without the slightest indication of violation of the very societal norms that define core values of a given society.
Fulfillment of such a requirement of bill of human rights would greatly serve to foster both national and international security.
Peskin wonders which party deserves more endowment with human rights compared to the other according to the resolutions made by tribunal to investigate Rwanda and Yugoslavia injustices against humanity (Peskin 2005, p.216). As a way of example, it appeared that the ICTR Commission favored the victor’s side.
The commission, despite the available proof linking it to the war crimes, shielded the members of Rwandan patriotic front: the ruling party. “To date, the tribunal has tried only leading figures responsible for Rwandan 1994 genocide and has failed to bring cases against RPF officers despite having jurisdiction to pursue these crimes”(Oneworld 2011, p.2).
The decision of the commission’s chief prosecutor Hassan Jallow to transfer the files affiliated to the RPF to Rwanda raises queries on the credibility of the commission in promoting equal and fair hearing of victims of the crimes against humanity committed by RPF.
In the 19th century, it was evident that segregation of liberal rights existed where Workers: perceived as ordinary workers, were widely discriminated upon the addressing of issues relating to enlightenment of “liberal human rights visions” (Ishay 2004, p.360).
The different orientations taken by socialist and liberal human rights visionaries, therefore, serve to challenge the universality of human rights declarations capacity to foster international security.
Crucial to take into consideration in the argument embracing the role of human rights in contributing to international security is the fact that international security is a substrate for international social transformations.
The conclusiveness on magnitude of the positive development of codification of human rights in promoting social transformation, therefore, becomes conspicuous upon weighing the human rights contribution to international security against the willingness of the people with liberal and socialist inclinations to change.
The expected change in the interpretation of human rights by the two groups could ensure that a concrete unified universal stand and shedding of light on what all people should interpret universal human rights to be.
The claims that the international bill of human rights has worldwide influence on human rights face several antagonistic challenges. Among them is the capacity of the bill of human rights to foster social transformations, knowing the various differences characterizing different societies.
In an attempt to object the claims, antagonists challenging the capability of the bill of human rights to influence the entire world through provision of mechanism to foster positive development towards social transformation invite controversies.
Further, the codification of the human rights bears an unequal emphasis on the aspects that define societies. Embarking on a methodology to induce total socio transformation, the method adopted would place a demand and place emphasis on implicit addressing of economic issues affecting a society.
However, for example, the bill of human rights, so believed to have universal capacity to provide avenues for global social transformation has got only articles 22-27 out of total 30 articles addressing humanitarian rights related to economic issues (Goodhart 2008, p.188).
The drafting of the bill of human rights took place in a period when the world was relieving from aftermaths of World War II whose causes were directly attributable to political and civil differences among various nations.
Perhaps the period during which the drafting of international bill of human rights took place might have extensively contributed to the rest of the human rights articles to have dominance in political and civil rights.
The fact that the economic rights of persons do not receive a thorough treatment makes questions relating to how the international bill of human rights provides guiding principles that ensure equality of human beings never to cease.
The bill claims that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions” (Ishay 2004, p.360).
Antagonist of the universal declaration of human rights fills that, in contrast to position held by the crafters of the human rights declarations, achievement of social transformations depends on the capability of the declarations to incorporate human rights affiliated to the key pillars that define the society: culture, politics and economic activities.
Situations, for example, the ones that stimulate the intervention of the international community of human rights in resolution of disputes related to violation of human rights happen only when the causes are politically instigated but, hardly in the case where the causes are invoked by economic human rights violations.
The bill of Human rights declarations lacks flexibility suitable for a vibrant and changing society. The society all over the world is not stagnant, but rather, it changes radically, especially with the advents of globalization and its related consequences.
“ A more positive interpretation of the last sixty years points to the capacity of human rights discourse to respond to changing attitudes of the society and to new circumstances” (Ishay 2008, p.89). The human rights interpretations lack the capacity to change as the times change.
For instance, the effects of current challenges to the socio transformations brought about by problems such unprecedented climatic change; whose blame rests on global warming, and HIV infection were not put into consideration when drafting the bill on human rights, as they were unforeseeable during those early times when the bill was crafted.
The numerous actions taken by the rich nations to protect their individualistic interests while negating the overall effects arising henceforth on the side the poor countries on their climatic cycles changes fail to appear in the human rights declarations.
As a way of example, “in 2005, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights rejected a petition by the Inuit people who claimed that US inaction on global warming was destroying their Arctic homeland” (Oneworld 2011, p.100). Was this not a violation of human rights?
The prerogative of the universal declaration of human rights in fostering massive social transformations remains questionable. An exemplification of the rigidity of the human rights declarations to change with respect to time is the modern world vast differences between the poor and the rich.
Lauren (2008, pp. 91-103) argues, “The gap contradicts the declaration that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health of him and of his family”.
In comparison to the two extremes of lifestyles of the rich and the poor, it poses problems to define what “adequate living standard” (Lauren ‘My Brother and Sister’s Keeper’ 2003, p.105) refer to considering the phrase “adequate living standard” to mean availability of excellent shelter, food, education, and health rights.
It is, therefore, challenging to have a universal understanding of what good shelter, food, education, and health imply by putting into consideration the extreme differences in accessibility of the basic human requirements that exists in the modern world.
How then would the society transform from the ways of life that are considered as bad to better ones given the existing discrepancies in accessibility and affordability of critical requirements in life under the captainship of bundles of human rights declarations that are inflexible?
The international bill of human rights claims that rights contained in the 30 articles document are applicable equally to all states. However, shortcomings associated to the relativity of different countries in the endowment in resource levels challenge the acknowledgment of economic, social and political rights.
For the overall propulsion of the entire world toward social transformation, the human rights should apply equally to all nations irrespective of a country’s resource endowment levels. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For instance, it came out conspicuously during the 2008 world food crises.
The food crises had disproportionately afflicted countries with low resource levels and hence perceived as weak. On realizing the inequality, “the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Oliver de Schutter urged the UN to respond to food crisis as a human rights emergency” (Oneworld 2011, p.108).
With the existence of disproportionate applicability of the international human rights, particularly to the poor nations, the positive development of the universal declaration of human rights fails to attain substantially adequate level of success so that their universality can propel the nations of the world towards the dreamland of massive social transformation.
The general notion is that individual rights evolve progressively with time as resources availability of a nation changes with time.
From such a notion, it seems evident based on the segregation of individual nations with low resource levels on the accounts of poverty considering certain rights that are supposed to be opulence of the countries considered successful in terms of resource levels.
Some critiques of human rights argue the concept of progressive evolvement of individual rights such as political and civil rights: a line of thought held and protected jealously by advocates of liberal direction of thinking in matters relating to human rights (Lauren ‘The Evolution of International Human Rights’ 2003, p. 187).
Terrorist’s attacks have prompted the various countries prone to the attacks from terrorists to come up with mitigation strategies to counter them. “The strategies considered involve violation of the very international human rights that mechanisms of using them to drive the societies of the world towards social integrity are being sort” (Oneworld 2011, p.1).
In as much as acts of terrorism are highly prohibited, counter-reaction strategies that aim at stopping the acts involve violation of human rights. Total reversal of human rights, which took many years to come into being, becomes the order of the day in dealing with perpetrators of criminal acts of terrorism.
Among them includes the intrusion of personal privacy, where the suspects are apprehended facing prolonged restriction of individual freedom of movement while awaiting trial or in some instances without trial. For example, during the war that saw the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, many Iraqis who were non-combatants were killed.
Although the figure of those killed because of US inversion of Iraq was much less compared to those whom Saddam killed, maimed or with animosity claimed their rights, no legal proceedings were raised against the US troops. Did the people killed in Baghdad have human rights garnered by the bill of human rights?
Does alteration of human rights apply to every person worldwide as provided for in the international declaration of human rights in situations where acts of terrorism requiring actions of strict powers of the law help to drive societies towards social transformation?
Strict measures of dealing with terrorism help to reduce the breeding grounds for terrorism acts but also increase the fear for revenge missions, particularly where killings of chief engineers of terrorism acts take place. A society that lives in the spirit of fear cannot expect to take pragmatic strides geared towards social transformation.
The initiatives taken to deal with terrorism are embedded in the idea of promotion, protection and adherence to human rights rules as spelt out in the international human rights codification. However, the results of the codifications tell it all as exposed in the paper: it cannot pass for a positive development.
Reference List
Donnelly, E., 2002. Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. Cornel University Press: New York.
Goodhart, M., 2008. Neither Relative nor Universal: A Response to Donnelly. Human Rights Quarterly, 30(1): pp.183-193.
Ishay, M., 2008. The History of Human Rights: From the Ancient Times to Globalization Era. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ishay, M., 2004. What are Human Rights? Six Historical Controversies. Journal of Human Rights, 3(3): pp.359-371.
Lauren, P., 2003. My Brother and Sisters Keeper: Visions and Birth of Human Rights. The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lauren, P., 2003.The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lauren, P., 2008. History and Human Rights: People and Forces in Paradoxical Interaction. Journal of Human Rights, 7(2): pp.91-103.
Oneworld, 2011. Human Rights Guide: Inside the Global Divide. Web.
Peskin, V., 2005. Beyond Victor’s Justice? The Challenge of Prosecuting the Winners At The International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Journal of Human Rights, 4(2): pp.213-231.