Those who are familiar with the piano keyboard do not need me to teach them anything about the making of music. The facts are as follows: Any of us can play any tune using just the white piano keys. And any of us can play any tune using just the black piano keys. However, if we are thinking of playing harmonious music, it’s obvious that one must play both black and white keys.
By Andre John-Salakov
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 was the brainchild of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of the great President of the United States. Her assistant throughout was an African American, by the name of Ralph Bunche.
Ralph Bunche was born in Detroit. He lost his parents at the age of eleven years old. Nonetheless, his grandmother who was illiterate put him through high school and from high school he went on to university, to read politics.
Understandably, Ralph Bunche was affected by the dichotomy of situations as between American whites and African Americans. By 1936 he founded the National Negro Congress. In that same year Ralph Bunche wrote a book titled A World View of Race. His book drew a distinction between colonialism and racism and analysed the underlying motivations for each.
He worked for the cause of peace in the troubled Middle East and almost got killed in the process. In the course of events, he won a Nobel Prize. “I don’t want it”, he said, “As I work here in the Secretariat of the United Nations, I am not working here to win prizes”.
I wonder how many fat cats in the corridors of power embrace this kind of philosophy! I don’t think there is such a person, save the likes of Nelson Mandela. But then, Nelson Mandela is Black. He knows all about human rights violations. He endured 27.6 years of them in a rotten jail in South Africa. The mother of all Conventions
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 is the basis of all the other Conventions, be they Geneva Convention, Convention relating to the status of stateless persons, Convention for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, even the Dublin Convention.
Every one of the above based its own principle or tenet upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. To all intents and purposes, the Declaration is the Bible of Human Rights, whether the world likes it or not. It is the mother of all Conventions.
Yet, many nation states across Continents have done little or nothing to advance the cause of human rights. All they do is talk, talk, and talk. But then, talk is cheap. Maybe that is the problem.
In 1963, at the first World Peace through Law Conference in Athens Hilton, (I, a mere 20 year old student) formed the view that representative governments were potential human rights violators in the years to come. Unbeknown to me at the time, my view was a mirror reflection of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s position.
As the Lady struggled to present the Declaration to the General Assembly of the UN, the chief Soviet Prosecutor Andrei Vishinsky gave her grief. “This is an outrage, Mrs. Roosevelt. You cannot infringe the rights of governments. They are the things that matter”, Andrei Vishinsky protested. “Mr. Vishinsky, we’re not dealing here with the rights of governments, they’re far too much already. We’re dealing here, Mr. Vishinsky, with the rights of people, of men, of the right of man to be free. Man, Mr. Vishinsky, not governments”, Mrs. Roosevelt replied.
Mr. Andrei Vishinsky had no choice. He had to be quiet. Such was the power of women over men. After all, women are the fathers of men. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was / is an important Document, almost akin to “a milestone in human civility”, according to documents in the Archives of the UN.
What is important here though, is the fact that Mrs. Roosevelt and Ralph Bunche gave the world community a form of blue print for humanitarian action across Continents. Yet, the Declaration has been allowed to gather dust in government archives across Continents.
But then, Ministers govern but they do not rule. The ones who rule are those working in government departments. They are responsible for interpreting and implementing national laws and, international conventions.
What is the way forward? For the moment, practically everything to do with human rights and human rights violations is all talk.
Every government should, as a matter of course, have in place a Ministry for Human Rights. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has done just that. Next, every country should have in place a Human Rights Court, for matters associated with civil liberty, racism, nepotism, tribalism, gender discrimination, and other challenges arising from misapplication of rules and regulations of a governmental nature.
But all matters relating to insurgency, political killings or massacre should be dealt with by a Regional Human Rights Court. The idea of an International Criminal Court to handle war “crimes” is unhelpful, unrealistic and impractical.
(Andre John-Salakov/Public Law Centre/Public Defender Service/Lawyers Without Frontiers)
