SYMPOSIUMS
LECTURE
No. 3 – FROM HUMAN RIGHTS TO THE RIGHTS OF ALL LIVING BEINGS: AN EVOLUTION
No. 3 – FROM HUMAN RIGHTS TO THE RIGHTS OF ALL LIVING BEINGS: AN EVOLUTION
At this very moment, the world is facing unprecedented challenges that are increasing violations of human rights.
But it is also important to consider how mentalities have evolved over the long term.
We will therefore look at:
I – The evolution of Human Rights since 1948
II – A struggle to be continued!
III – Respect for human beings and for all that lives in Aumism
I – THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS SINCE 1948
1 – The starting point: the Declaration of Human Rights
We will start here from 1948, when the United Nations, born of the victory over Nazism, affirmed the will to recognise human rights.
It is to the French jurist René Cassin, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and principal drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), that we owe the word “universal” given to the Declaration, which very nearly ended up being merely “international”. He wanted to stress that the rights affirmed did not concern citizens, nationals of States, but individuals belonging to one and the same family.
There were, however, criticisms:
– Women’s rights are not developed. It is worth recalling that Olympe de Gouges, who wrote a “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen” in 1791 and fought all her life for women’s rights, was guillotined! But in 1948 the equal rights of men and women were affirmed in the preamble of the Declaration.
– There are no legal guarantees.
– There is no question of applying it differently according to culture.
– The death penalty is passed over in silence.
As its Preamble states, the UDHR is an ideal to be achieved. And it has not finished making its way into people’s consciences: over the years it would be completed and improved by other texts taking various demands into account.
2 – The broadening of rights
We will outline a few significant stages:
Additions to the UDHR
1950: the European Convention on Human Rights allows judicial review of respect for these rights.
This was the first binding text protecting certain rights recognised by the UDHR. Compliance by the States parties is monitored by the European Court of Human Rights.
Note that while the UDHR is silent on the death penalty, the protocols to the European Convention have abolished it.
1966: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Rights of persons
- Children
Following the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959, the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 rests on four principles: non-discrimination; the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child on all matters affecting them.
- Women
November 1967: the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women states: “Discrimination against women, denying or limiting as it does their equality of rights with men, is fundamentally unjust and constitutes an offence against human dignity” (Art. 1).
- Cultural diversity
– 21 October 1986: the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, drawn up from an “African perspective” while recognising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, entered into force.
– 2007: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms that they are free and equal to all other peoples and must not be subjected to any discrimination.
Rights of the kingdoms of Nature
- Animals
– 1978: the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights stresses that “respect for animals by humans is linked to respect among humans themselves”.
– 29 March 2019: the Toulon Declaration, at the close of an academic conference on the legal personality of animals: an animal is a subject of law as a living being, not a thing.
- Nature
– 28 October 1982: the World Charter for Nature affirms the importance of protecting nature for the survival of humanity.
– 2000: the Earth Charter maintains that the protection of the Earth’s vitality, diversity and beauty is a sacred trust.
– After Rio, the “rights of Nature” were addressed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, “Rio+20”, in 2012.
– 26 May 2021: the Charter of the Rights of Living Beings (Toulon) recalls the need to maintain a balance between the interests of humans, animals and Nature. The aim is to ensure the transition from a law “over” living beings to a law “of” living beings.
Climate and the environment
– 2010: the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth was drawn up at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change (Bolivia), at the initiative of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It starts from the principle that rights cannot be granted to human beings without also granting rights to nature, unless an imbalance is to be created.
– 28 July 2022: a historic resolution declaring that access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a universal human right. This marks progress in the collective fight against the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
This gradual broadening of Rights bears witness to new awareness and to a positive evolution of mentalities. Humans, animals and the Earth are interdependent.
Of course, Declarations, Conventions and Charters are not magic wands! From the adoption of principles to their implementation worldwide, the path is uneven, with advances in some areas and setbacks in others, and with violations such as we see in times of crisis.
II – THE RIGHTS OF ALL: A STRUGGLE TO BE CONTINUED
Human Rights are a permanent conquest. A struggle for justice and for peace. For without justice there is no peace.
1 – Current violations of human rights
The Law of the strongest has not finished committing acts of domination. The Law of Profit continues to feed on inequality, corruption and the destruction of resources.
A few examples:
– “Since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted 34 years ago, children’s rights have never been so threatened,” declared the Executive Director of UNICEF. According to UNICEF, “since 2005, at least 120,000 children around the world have been killed or maimed because of conflict, an average of nearly 20 children a day” (June 2023).
– Globally, women still have only three quarters of the legal rights granted to men. Nearly 2.4 billion women in the world do not have the same economic rights as men (press release of 1 March 2022). [1] More than 60% of people living in extreme poverty are women. [2] Not to mention the number of femicides…
– Wars bring violence against civilians, the recruitment of children, crimes against humanity and genocides.
– In May 2022, more than 100 million people around the world had been uprooted by persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order (UN Refugee Agency). So many people whose right to life is flouted.
“The embers of racism, misogyny, inequality and hatred continue to threaten our world” (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Day, 10 December 2023).
But we must also take into account the victories, the advances towards greater solidarity and brotherhood that are translated into facts.
2 – Advances
A few examples:
– Education and health
According to a statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the 75th anniversary of the UDHR: “Considerable progress has been made in education and health.”
– The fight against poverty
Progress has been made, but it is hampered by the crises the world is going through.
“While extreme poverty has fallen sharply over the last thirty years, we are still far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty worldwide” (SDG 1; Oxfam, “La pauvreté dans le monde n’est pas une fatalité”, 3 March 2023).
– The abolition of the death penalty
According to France Diplomatie, global awareness in favour of abolition is progressing on every continent, regardless of the type of political regime, level of development or cultural heritage. [3]
Moreover, in recent decades new rights have emerged: the so-called third-generation rights, or “solidarity rights”. These are collective rights: the right to development, the right to peace, the right to humanitarian assistance, the right to a healthy environment. All these rights are a call for solidarity. They are both a necessity and the echo of a progress in mentalities.
In 2018, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, declared: “There is still a long way to go, but over the last 70 years humanity has taken a thousand steps forward.” Fortunately there have been further steps forward, but the struggle continues: more than ever, in this changing world, we must resist whatever flouts human dignity and develop international solidarity.
III – AUMISM AND RESPECT FOR ALL THAT LIVES
According to the Aumist Teaching, this struggle for a change of mentality is the fundamental struggle of the Golden Age: an inner struggle to free oneself from one’s own prejudices, which goes hand in hand with resisting every form of hatred and violence outside.
It is respect for all human beings and for life in all its forms that will not only save the planet but enable humanity to build a freer, more fraternal world.
1 – Affirming the universal right to respect
The foundation of respect is that the Divine is in every human being and in the whole of creation.
All human beings have the right to respect
Lord HAMSAH MANARAH says to each of us:
“Express within yourself this universal solidarity that transcends the notions of race, nation, civilisation and religion.” [4]
“The notion of the superiority of man over woman belongs entirely to the Iron Age.” [5] “Every man and every woman deserves our respect.” [6] And this is so whatever their origin, culture or religion.
Respect is due to children, who have the right to protection. They have the right to a fulfilling education that combines love with firmness, and human values with a sense of effort (see in particular Le Yoga de la Vie pratique).
Nature has the right to respect.
It is alive; today it is sick from being overexploited and polluted. And it reacts to the way it is treated.
2 – Human rights go hand in hand with duties
While they rightly claim recognition of their rights, human beings must also be aware of their duties: “Man,” says Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, “must, in his heart and in his mind, replace the right he claims with the duty to be fulfilled.” And each person has the duty to transform themselves in order to help humanity progress on the path of respect.
Among other examples, the book L’Aumisme, La Doctrine de l’Âge d’Or, which offers solutions to the current problems of our societies, proposes a “Code of honour of man towards the kingdoms of Nature” (p. 206); an ethic for the scientist of the new times (p. 175); advice for parents, who must prepare their children for the Golden Age (p. 235 ff.); and a “Code of the Young Knights of Peace” (p. 248), which encourages young people to respect a discipline and values that can ensure both their own balance and a better future for humanity.
Let us not forget: responsibilities are collective, but they require each person’s inner work: “A better order in the world cannot be achieved and last without a transformation of the individual.” [7]
It is essential to act at the level of Governments. Awareness of the problems caused by the failure to respect rights is growing around the world. But it is slow. Despite the trials that call for unity, divisions persist.
Pandemics, disasters, pollution, global warming and migration know no borders. If difficulties strengthen contempt for the rights of human beings and of living things, this is the slope towards self-destruction. But difficulties can, fortunately, be an opportunity to foster genuine cooperation between nations in the service of the whole of humanity. This is what we must hope for and encourage through our actions.
Speaking of the tsunami of 26 December 2004, Edgar Morin said: “That day, we became aware of our shared earthly destiny. What remains is to root in people’s minds the idea of the Earth as a common homeland, which does not destroy other homelands but encompasses and embraces them.”
More than ever, humanity needs international questions to be taken in hand by an assembly of wise people from every country, concerned with the interests of the planet, as Lord HAMSAH MANARAH proposes.
These aspirations come to light especially in trials that call for solidarity. But to root them in daily life, education in respect for all that lives is essential.
With this in mind, the Aumist Teaching guides adults and children towards unity in respect for differences. The two are inseparable in building a future that will gradually give full place to respect for the rights of human beings and of nature.
IN CONCLUSION
In times of crisis, focusing exclusively on the violence of those who are bent on pouring out hatred brings no help.
It is important to see beings and events evolve over time, step by step.
It is important to hear the voices that call for solidarity, and to recognise and support the efforts of the men and women all over the world who courageously defend the rights of all.
Awareness is growing ever wider and, as we have seen, it changes mentalities over the long term. We must speed up this evolution so that it changes behaviour in depth.
Hope is the best fuel for the will. And now is the time for us to affirm our will to build, against all odds, a fairer world.
Human Rights broadened into the Rights of all Living Beings are a struggle, the struggle of our generation, which must inspire future generations.
V. SHAMBARA
Speaker
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[1] World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2022, press release of 1 March 2022, www.banquemondiale.org
[2] Oxfam France, “Inégalités et justice fiscale”, www.oxfamfrance.org
[3] French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, “Abolition de la peine de mort” (updated 2022), www.diplomatie.gouv.fr
[4] Une Loi pour détruire le Mal, p. 61
[5] L’Aumisme, La Doctrine de l’Âge d’Or, p. 229
[6] La Révolution du Monde des Vivants et des Morts, p. 460
[7] Yoga et Sagesse, p. 241
