Human Rights

When a couple celebrate their diamond wedding, there is great joy amongst family and friends remembering the 60 years that they have spent together. Another 60th anniversary occurs this year about which we should all be excited. It was one of the most momentous events in history and affects us all. In Paris on 10th December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. From that day onwards, the world was subtly changed for ever.
It was a very different world immediately after the Second World War. The U.N. only had 56 members and most of the countries that we now know had not achieved independence. Those states voted 48 to nil for the declaration, with 8 abstentions.
Of course, the change was not apparent immediately. Evil men still continued to abuse the human rights of others. Just to look at the subsequent history of the four states that principally signed the Declaration demonstrates the problem. Within a year, the Nationalist government of China had fallen and under the Communists we have seen human rights continually violated. Poor Lebanon has been decimated by decades of conflict. The French were almost immediately embroiled in a desperate struggle to try and avoid independence for their colonies in North Africa and the Far East. Lastly, the U.S.A., where it took their own African-American population several more decades to obtain the rights that their country had sponsored in 1948. Even today, a question mark hangs over their ambivalent attitude to the human rights of those that they don’t approve of.
Despite this, things have gradually improved. When the Declaration came into existence, a yardstick was created against which the actions of people could be judged. Increasingly, the evil are being brought to account. We now have an International Court of Human Rights and an International Criminal Court. The weak and oppressed can turn to them for justice and the villains risk prosecution before them. The U.N., although often ineffective, is still better than the old League of Nations. At least its agencies have done some wonderful work. Also, for the first time in history, strong countries regularly use their armed forces to protect the weak. Sometimes inadequate, sometimes too little too late; nevertheless, the blue berets of the U.N. have brought to millions the only hope that they have. Lastly, step by step, the rich countries are slowly accepting their economic responsibility for the poor.
There is still much to do. Whole sections of the original proposed Declaration were never adopted. New questions constantly arise as the world changes. For instance, with the rise of international terrorism, how much should we infringe the rights of those who have no respect for the human rights of others? Every country seems to come up with different answers.
Christians have a responsibility to play their part. We follow a master who was born in an occupied land, threatened from birth by the powerful and forced to become a refugee. In the end, he was given a show trial and to appease a baying mob, was summarily executed without the right of appeal. Even today, in parts of the world, our fellow believers are persecuted and struggle for the right to worship and live in their own way.
We are lucky to live in a rich, peaceful democracy. We should use this advantage to ensure that Christ is meaningful to all those who need his love. Our access to unbiased news coverage enables us to be better informed when we pray. Also, we have the freedom to follow up those prayers by adding our voice to those demanding that every human being’s rights be respected.