World Human Rights Day is observed on Dec.10 ever since the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
It calls upon every nation, community, groups, organisations, families, institutions and citizens to know that very human being has fundamental human rights and to respect them.
Nations are encouraged to make appropriate laws for implementing these rights so that people may enjoy the benefit of their human rights. In India the Constitution has integrated these in its chapter III, Fundamental Rights.
In our time, all over the world, human rights are violated in various ways:
Wars and border disputes among countries;
Group wars and terrorism using latest sophisticated weapons;
Denying people the right to life and existence in their own homeland;
Forcing people to become migrants and displaced in their own country;
Denying groups and communities the benefits of their natural resources;
Displacing tribals and indigenous people from their land for mines, quarries and mega industries by outsiders in connivance with ruling parties;
Amending tenancy laws in tribal areas to roll out red carpet to mega industries and business magnates;
Denying people’s right to education, development, peace, justice, employment, just wages etc;
Depriving women their right to pray alongside men in worshipping places;
Denying children the right to be born by aborting them;
Creating rules and regulations by politicians to boost their megalomania, thereby causing untold harm to the general public
These are some of the modern phenomena of human rights violations caused by power hunger, religious fundamentalism, narrow sectarianism, self-aggrandisement, dictatorial governments, political ambitions, skewed political ideology and the like.
Today, we need to break the barriers of suspicion and hatred, caste and class, hunger for power and thirst for luxury at the expense of the poor. We need honest politicians who will own up their mistakes, work honestly for people’s progress and to ensure their human rights.
We need leaders in villages, communities and countries who will show examples of honesty and integrity, courage and commitment.
We all need to hold our hands together in a world human chain to ensure people their human rights.