People are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 others and are denied free speech in at least 77, writes Colm O'Gorman
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S Report 2008, launched today, shows that 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, injustice, inequality and impunity are the hallmarks of our world.
Innocent men and boys are being kidnapped and tortured at the behest of the US, the world's self-professed human rights defender. Hundreds of people are illegally detained in Guantánamo and in Bagram, thousands in Iraq, and the horror of European "black sites" has yet to be fully catalogued. Ireland and many other nations have condemned extraordinary rendition, yet the international community is impotent and ineffective in its response to such crimes.
The Government has been advised repeatedly that through Shannon airport we are at risk of being complicit in this truly inhuman practice, and yet it continues to blithely accept the diplomatic assurances of the US.
The concept of legally binding human rights was born out of the world's reaction to the horrors of the second World War. In a moment of powerful leadership, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. But 60 years on, in our globalised, televised world, we are witness every day to the continued degradation of our fellow humans.
Both the US and the EU failed to make any impact on the human rights crises in Burma and Darfur. In both cases the world looked to China, not the US, as the country with the necessary clout to move things forward. China voted in favour of the deployment of the peacekeeping force in Darfur and pressurised Burma to accept the visit of the UN special envoy. However, it continued to transfer arms to Darfur despite the UN arms embargo, and it persists in the persecution of its own citizens.
Russia, newly self-confident, has repressed political dissent, harassed journalists, introduced legislative controls over community organisations and allowed impunity in Chechnya.
Although the UN Security Council has continued to be hamstrung on human rights by the divergent interests of its permanent members, the General Assembly showed its potential for leadership by adopting a resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the death penalty. This was the UN at its best: states inspiring each other to better performance, rather than running each other down to the lowest common denominator.
In a world where the former champions of freedom are now amongst those who most threaten that same principle, we must be prepared to stand up for human rights at home and worldwide.
Real change has happened when political leaders have responded to the anger of their people and moved beyond self-interest. Their failure to do so now stands in stark contrast to the bravery of the monks of Burma, the lawyers of Pakistan and the women of Zimbabwe.
In the past Ireland has shown this kind of political leadership. But human rights cannot be just rhetoric. The real test for Ireland, as for every other state, is how we uphold human rights at home.
Illegal imprisonment in Guantánamo is an abuse of human rights. But so, too, is denying people the right to housing, to education or to adequate healthcare. So, too, is imprisoning a young man like Gary Douch in conditions where he is savagely beaten to death. So, too, is the continuing failure to deliver adequate mental health services. In Ireland today over 3,000 children are on waiting lists for psychiatric assessment.
Poverty and inequality cannot be separated from violence and oppression; we have seen how one can breed the other.
We need to start a debate in Ireland on how our Government will fulfil its legal obligations to house people, and to provide them with an education and with adequate healthcare. It cannot be a debate led from the top.
People need to be enabled to hold the decision-makers to account. They have a right to be educated about their rights, so that they are better able to obtain them. We need to relearn that the State exists to serve the people, not the other way round.
The challenge for the next 12 months is one that exists for our political leadership, but also for each of us. Will we allow ourselves to be ruled, or will we participate in governing? Will we help our Government to lead internationally for human rights? Or will we be writing in this paper a year from now in a world just a little darker than today?
We cannot abdicate our responsibility to the Taoiseach or to political leaders. It rests with each of us.
Colm O'Gorman is executive director of Amnesty International Irish Section. The annual report is available via http://thereport.amnesty.org