Human Rights Consciousness Is Gripping The World – And So It Must Be

By Shyamon Jayasinghe -December 31, 2013 

By Shyamon Jayasinghe

Many amongst us seem to be unable to grasp the true importance of human rights. The notion just surfs over our consciousness as something abstract or out there-perhaps in a Platonic world of Universals. Self-appointed patriots of Lanka- especially the humorless types living overseas- who are burdened with the self-delusion of ownership of the island- simply hate anything associated with the human rights discourse. With the run up to the Geneva meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in March this year government leaders are nervous about the whole idea. Yet, leaving specific sensitive situations apart, the notion of human rights or “HR,” is simply about the basic dignity of you and me as individuals. Let’s ask ourselves the question: ‘shouldn’t we be allowed to live in dignity, in security and without fear?’ At this point an abstract concept becomes a live reality.

We are witnessing today a revolution in global consciousness about human rights.  By that I mean that pursuing the goal of human rights is essentially a modern phenomenon. Human civilization has no doubt erupted in the past with numerous brutalities and unkind treatment to fellow beings. Slavery was regarded as acceptable and even fashionable among the affluent in the West. Persecuting dissent in religion or politics was normal. Remember the Spanish Inquisition? Beating down Aboriginals and hunting them down in the bush was something of a sport in the Australia of the past.  Sri Lankan critics of HR are in the habit of citing such instances to scorch the Western powers over the UN rights issue. What is wrong about such a critique is that all those actions had been part of the spirit of the times or the moral zeitgeist of an era. Such behaviors are now rejected as unacceptable and even abhorrent. The line has been drawn between the old era and the new and we have to honor that. Those in power among the diverse human collectivites called countries or nations cannot be allowed to continue in such abusive behavior. Human civilization must move ahead.

I am not saying that the Western powers are not guilty of HR abuse even today. They certainly are. Particularly after George Bush’s “war on terror,” America and its allies were open to such allegations. The US naval base at Guantanamo Bay was the scene of torture. The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan raised our eyebrows. Hopefully, all this would soon be forgotten as a reaction to the grave Nine Eleven threat to the survival of the United States of America and to European civilization.                         Read More