“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity” – Nelson Mandela
Every year, December 10th is observed as Human Rights Day. On December 10th, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); the document which grants rights to every individual regardless of race, cast, culture, class, nationality, religion, language, and ethnicity. Despite this, human rights violation is spreading as a pandemic disease that is plaguing the entire world.
The violation of human rights is manifested in the form of human trafficking, child abuse, gender discrimination, violation of prisoners’ rights, refugee rights, violation of rights to information and journalism, execution of innocents in war-torn regions such as Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Kashmir, Palestine, etc. Human rights violation is a threat to international peace as it instigates global terrorism and extremism which inflict severe repercussions on the entire world.
Syria, Sudan, Congo, and Pakistan lead 10 countries with the worst human rights violations in 2014
Worst Human Rights Violating Countries in 2021-22
Minority Rights are human rights that are violated throughout the world; human beings are lynched, tortured, and killed in the name of religion, cast, and ethnicity.
Ethnic cleansing in Myanmar and sectarian violence in Muslim countries are a few testimonies of the violation of minority rights. The recent lynching of Sri Lankan factory manager, Priyantha Diyawadanage in the city of Sialkot indicates the fact that savages are roaming freely in the garb of humans.
In addition to this, human trafficking is also spreading like a contagious disease, every year millions of children, women, and men are smuggled into sexual slavery and forced labor. The world is also suffering from a pandemic of misogyny where women and children are harassed, abused, and killed in order to fulfill the hunger of patriarchy. Surging cases of children and women’s rights violations such as murder cases of Noor Mukadam, Zainub, and Quratulain Baloch are indicative of the fact that the entire civilization is going back towards barbarism and savagery.
Since the adoption of the Human Rights Charter in 1945, the signatory members of the charter have produced a pile of papers proclaiming goals and principles to promote and protect fundamental human rights, which no state dares to defy publically, however, ironically, hardly few states observe conscientiously and embrace to the point of its implementation.
Unfortunately, states who claim to be the custodian of human rights are involved in war crimes and proxy wars. Hegemonic powers commit gross human rights violations to achieve their geopolitical and economic interests.
The human rights crisis in Kashmir through the repressive Indian administration and the occupied Palestinian territories by Israel, and the humanitarian crisis due to sectarian and proxy wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are testimonies of gross human rights violations committed by the very custodian of human rights.
The desire of achieving the vested interests of the hegemonic powers proved fatal for the entire humanity and eventually led the world to meet a huge humanitarian crisis.
According to the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, the post-9/11 military invasions and wars alone resulted in the death of at least 801,000 people due to direct war, including armed forces, civilians, journalists, and humanitarian workers. These figures do not include deaths caused by ripple effects like diseases, malnutrition, damaged infrastructure, environmental degradation, and other indirect consequences of the war.
Approximately, 7,000 US soldiers have died in these wars. More than 37 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and the Philippines. Occupation of Kashmir by Indian forces followed by civilian killings, use of pellet-firing shotguns, excessive use of force, cordon and search operations, and restrictions on freedom of press and assembly is yet another testimony of gross human rights violation and a disquieting quiet from regional and international players.
According to statistics from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)-2019, 1,253 people have been blinded by the metal pellets used by security forces from mid-2016 to the end of 2018 alone. However, the total statistics of gross human rights violation cases go beyond human comprehension.
The irony is that more often there is deafening silence from the regional and international organizations observed, occasional rumblings of concerns and agendas devoid of implementation, and some anger from different corners can be observed whenever a gross human rights violence case is in the spotlight.
However, the recent step of the OIC to convene the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers to save Afghanistan from humanitarian catastrophe is worth praising endeavor. The main obstacles in the way of eliminating the evil of human rights violation are hegemonic goals of major powers, terrorism, lack of education and awareness, the fragile role of the international justice system and UNO, absence of democratic culture.
There is a dire need to condemn proxy wars by the prevailing international justice system. UNSC should play its role in order to curtail major powers’ hegemonic design which is the main reason for gross human rights violations in many countries.
Social cohesiveness and economic reforms are also the need of the hour in order to bring sustainable harmony. International and regional organizations should also play their role to secure victim countries from great power games and to restore trust in liberal democratic institutions.