HUMAN RIGHTS
WHO'S RIGHT?
By Ng Tze Yong
August 09, 2007
HUMAN rights - the mother of all motherhood statements, the
cookie-cutter and apple pie statement that can mean anything from
the fall of the Berlin Wall to why you should get that pay
rise.
It's the free world politician's BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious
Goal.
It's why Saddam's hated, Lincoln's loved, and why an American
teenager's butt, due for six strokes of the mighty rotan, once
riled the US.
It's an ideal so important, yet so hard to pin down.
Soon, human rights may be coming to an Asean conference near
you.
Asean recently announced it has agreed to set up a landmark human
rights commission.
Will Asean's leaders find their way to a common definition? Just
what are human rights? It's a tricky question.
The granddaddy of human rights was a man with the less-than-cuddly
name of Cyrus the Great.
King of a Persian empire in the 6th century BC, dear Cyrus carved
down his thoughts on a piece of royal clay, promising religious
freedom and abolishing slavery for his people.
The Cyrus Cylinder, as the edict became known, is recognised by
many as the first human rights charter. A replica actually takes
pride of place at the steel-and-glass UN headquarters.
Over the centuries, philosophers took turns to have a crack at the
question.
John Locke's take on human rights was sweetly divine, describing
rights as gifts from God.
John Stuart Mill's thesis was almost mathematical: One always acts
to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people.
Karl Marx, ever the practical man, issued a war cry: Revolution
against the bourgeoisie.
The romantics will say: Human rights is 'the conscience of
mankind', 'the highest aspiration of man' and 'the rebellion
against tyranny'.
All well and good. But let's try and be a little bit more
specific.
Before we get to the 'rights', let's try and figure out the
'human'.
Who's human? Now that's a tough one in itself.
The US Declaration of Independence famously states that 'all men
are created equal'.
But it was years before America freed its slaves and gave women the
right to vote.
WHAT'S BEEN FIGURED OUT
Today, we've figured out the women and ethnic minorities.
We haven't quite made up our minds about the rights of homosexuals
and transient workers.
Not forgetting, of course, the rights of opposition
politicians.
It's the million-dollar question, a tricky one, in fact, for
several Asean states.
So which comes first? Society's good or one human's rights? Is
human rights too amorphous a concept to mean anything?
Taking baby steps before the leap of faith might help.
Mr Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International
Affairs, wrote earlier this week that Asean should consider public
education first.
Human rights, he wrote, continue to be seen in this region as an
alien, 'Western' concept. Public education can reframe that
debate.
'Asean's peoples need to understand human rights and see them as
being part of their own heritage and beliefs, rather than a Western
imposition,' wrote Mr Tay.
Can Asean pull it off?
The way forward might not be as murky as it looks.
The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights already holds the
Guinness World Record for being the most translated document -
'more than 300 languages and dialects: from Abkhaz to Zulu.'
Asean, though, will have to find its own language.
There's plenty of thinking ahead for Asean to do. Asean's new rule,
ironically, must come from some sort of consensus.
Motherhood will only make it murkier.