Giving Human Rights Life - To the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and Convention against Genocide and to the 30th anniversary of the Society of Threatened Peoples GfbV

{bild1}By Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth, MP of the Federal Republic of Germany

When the then 56 member states of the United Nations (UN) passed the Declaration of Human Rights they did so as a reaction to the crimes of World War 2. Constitutional crimes against humanity such as the nazi holocaust of Jews, Sinti & Roma should never happen again. Article 1: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights" was a direct response to genocide and the Nazi ideology of a "master race" ("Herrenrasse"). Even though it was only a "Declaration", the human rights declaration has experienced a development in the last 50 years which no other international law has seen.

Its humanitarian spirit was included in constitutions (such as the German Constitutional Law) in all continents and in supranational agreements such as the European Human Rights Convention. A worldwide network to look after the protection of Human Rights developed out of the UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Human Rights departments in national ministries of foreign affairs and special parliamentarian committees.

Election promises and the subject of armchair conversations

Nevertheless, Human Rights often are nothing more than election promises and the subject of armchair conversations. Some authoritarian regimes like to demote human rights and democratic government as "Tools of Western Imperialism". Why wasn't there a proper engagement with the dreadful human rights abuses in Algeria, Indonesia, China and other states at the last annual meeting of the UNHCHR? But news of murder, torture and oppression, brought to us daily by the media and the Internet, as well as our worry about a humane future should not deceive us: The 1948 Declaration has changed the behaviour of governments. Even dictators today talk about human rights. We keep track of their atrocities - but who can count how many abuses have been avoided because of the Human Rights Declaration?

Nobel Peace Prize Winners and other outstanding personalities from around the world reinforce again and again the universality of human rights. In meetings with witnesses such as the Dalai Lama, the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka and the indigenous civil rights leader Rigoberta Menchú, we feel that all cultures of this world are able to add to the deepening and development of humanity's basic values.

A declaration to protect human rights defenders

Contrary to the bureaucratic overproduction of paper which is part and parcel of the UN today, the Human Rights Declaration stands out with its precision and timelessness. But Human Rights have to be an unfinished process based on broad participation. It was a marvellous feat to see the UNHCHR passing a declaration to protect human rights defenders as an addendum to the 30 articles of 1948. "Everybody has the right to take part in peaceful activities against human rights abuses", states the declaration which was supported by the German delegation.

The strength and radicalism of the Human Rights Declaration lay and lies in the fact that it measures human dignity by the well-being of the individual, not by the arbitrariness of the powerful. But peoples and religious communities are being oppressed and persecuted in wars and national conflicts. The newly formed United Nations knew well that whole groups needed protection too: Already by December 9th, they had passed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Unfortunately, even this document did not have the effect it deserved.

The international community, led by the permanent members of the Un Security Council, has not consistently punished genocide, aggression and atrocities in the last decades of the Cold War. When concentration camps were erected and the mass-rape of women and the closing-off of cities were happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, it did nothing for a long time. And when militias in Rwanda slaughtered hundred thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, the UN recalled their troops. Only a few weeks ago a perpetrator of genocide was sentenced by the International Court of Justice for Rwanda. Inconsistency in punishment of crimes leads to complicity.

Resignation is inhumane

Resignation, as understandable as it might be, is inhumane. The main perpetrators of the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina have to be brought to the war tribunal in The Hague. The new Serbian ethnic cleansing offensive in Kosovo has to be stopped. Germany will continue to offer refuge to the victims of genocide and persecution. It is to be welcomed that 50 years after the Nuremberg trials the appointment of a permanent International Criminal Court was agreed upon in Rome. The German Department of Foreign Affairs strongly supported the independence of this court against the opposition of our western partners. Especially as Germans were perpetrators as well as victims of persecution it is imperative that the Federal Republic urges the UN to pass the "Declaration on Population Transfer and the Implantation of Settlers" which is currently in draft form.

Indigenous Peoples worldwide demand the recognition of their dignity. It is a cruel setback for them that the nations refuse to pass the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was finally agreed upon by a working group of the UNHCHR after decades of discussions. Indigenous peoples are especially endangered today. Ambitious development and infrastructure projects as part of the economic globalisation process destroy their natural habitats and ways of life. Through development co-operation based on human rights principles, Germany can contribute to the survival of indigenous communities and, consequently, the preservation of the world's diversity. I personally will urge the government to sign the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which is in favour of indigenous peoples - as the Netherlands and Denmark have already done.

Protection of minorities will remain a challenge in Europe

Protection of minorities will remain a challenge in Europe. Even though the Council of Europe has created a base for this through its Framework Convention on the Protection of Minorities and its Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, but member states can decide for themselves which parts they want to adopt. It is not surprising that 23 of the 48 minority languages in Western Europe were described as "limited" or "not viable" in the report "Euromosaic" published by the European Commission in 1996. In order to stop the decline of cultural diversification, it is necessary to have binding minority protection at European Union level.

In light of the east expansion of the EU in coming decades, this would contribute to our security and good external relations/neighbourhood. Even us Germans can strengthen our minority protection by including it explicitly in our constitutional law. And again, a Sorbian village in the Lausitz region of Eastern Germany is urged to resettle cause of coal mining. Members of other ethnic groups who often came decades ago as 'guest workers' protest about increasing exclusion. Asylum homes went up in flames and are still in danger. In light of the current pre-election debates I wish that all democratic parties in Germany will stand against racism as we are and will remain an immigrant-friendly country.

Guards of world conscience

The attainment of basic rights and freedoms is a duty of all citizens of this world. Maybe the proclamation of human rights would not have happened without courageous people like the philosopher Albert Camus and the ex-US-bomber Garry Davis who put public pressure on the UN members. Since then, around the world, uncountable big and small initiatives have developed which remind governments and politicians of their duties. The Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) has been one of these guards of world conscience for 30 years. Founded 1968 in Hamburg as the 'Aktion Biafra-Hilfe' and renamed 1970, out of Germany's past, it has derived the task to prevent genocide and persecution in the world of today. Since then the GfbV has stood up for the South Sudanese, Tibetans, East Timorese, Kurds and many other oppressed peoples. It has given a voice to the victims of human rights abuses at vigils, press conferences and in its publications.

Bring Human Rights to Life!

Today, the GfbV is an international organisation whose voice is taken seriously by the UN and by the world's media. Personally, I often had the pleasure during the last couple of years to work with the GfbV: as patron of the International Congress for the Documentation of the Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, or in the framework of their campaign on the social integration of German immigrants from the Community of Independent States. I call on all members, supporters and workers of the GfbV as well as the readers of the GfbV's magazine pogrom: Never stop to become committed! Bring Human Rights to Life!

MP Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth was the President of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1988 to 1998. Her article was first published (in German) in the GfbV-Journal pogrom, No. 200, 1998.

Translated by Heike Vornhagen, Galway One World Centre