THE NEED TO
UPHOLD THE MANDATE OF ANY CONSTITUTION AS THE WORLD COMMEMORATES THE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY, TODAY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10, 2014
In any existing society, everyone is entitled to certain rights or
privileges as the case may be, which signifies the value of that person in the
society in question. This phenomenon is invariably regarded by all and sundry
as ‘Human Rights.’
Human rights are moral principles or norms that describe certain
standards of human behaviour and are regularly safeguarded as legal rights in
both national and international laws. They are usually seen as undeniable
fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because he
or she is a human being as well as a bona-fide member of that society
regardless of the person’s location, language, skin colour, religion, ethnic
origin, background, among other statuses.
Human rights are universal and supreme, in the sense that it is being
applicable everywhere and at every time; and they are also egalitarian, in the
sense of being the same for everyone. They require empathy and the rule of law,
and impose an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others.
Fundamentally, it is
forbidden for human rights to be taken away, ignored or overlooked by any
person, officer, court of law or any instituted authority, unless as a result
of due process based on specific circumstances. Ordinarily, human rights require
freedom from unlawful molestation, discrimination, assault, torture, detention,
imprisonment, and/or execution, which have recently been the order of the day
in most localities or countries.
The doctrine of human rights has been highly influential within national and international laws coupled with regional and global institutions. Actions by states and non-governmental organizations form a basis of public policy worldwide. There is a consensus that human rights encompasses a wide variety of rights such as the right to life, fair trial, prosecution, protection against enslavement, prohibition of genocide, free speech, information dissemination, choice of religion, and a right to education. Though some thinkers or schools of thought are of the view that human rights ought to comprise a minimum requirement to avoid the worst-case abuses while others see the wide variety as a higher standard.
Many of the basic ideas that yielded the Human Rights Movement came up
in the aftermath of the Second World War and the atrocities of The Holocaust.
The aforementioned ideas or views culminated in the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in Paris – France by the United Nations (UN)
General Assembly in the year 1948. Although the ancient people did not have the
same modern-day ideology of universal human rights.
The real forerunner of human rights crusade was the concept of natural
rights which appeared as part of the medieval natural law tradition that became
notable during the enlightenment by philosophers like Francis Hutcheson, John
Locke and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and which featured predominantly in the
political thrives of both the American and French Revolutions.
From the above foundation, the modern human rights arguments emerged
during the half of the twentieth century possibly as a reaction to slavery,
torture, genocide, and war crimes, as a realization of inherent human
vulnerability and as being a precondition for the emergence of the anticipated
just society.
Due to the supremacy and universality of human rights, every adopted
constitution or bye-law creates a special column which categorically stipulates
the rights and privileges binding the entire members of the society/group that
abides by the mandates of the said constitution, and such provision is bound to
remain sacrosanct among the members unless unanimous amendments are made to
that effect.
Frankly, sine recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and
inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the rudiments of
freedom, peace and justice in the world; and since all human beings were born
free and equal in dignity and rights, there is an absolute need for the
fundamental rights stipulated in any constitution to be duly upheld, in order
to put to a stop all forms of human rights abuses taking place in all nooks and
crannies across the globe.
Today Wednesday December 10, the world over is commemorating the 2014 Human Rights Day. In 1950, the United Nations
General Assembly proclaimed 10th December of every year as Human
Rights Day, to bring the attention of people of the world to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement for all
peoples as well as all nations.
This year’s slogan – ‘Human Rights 365’, bears the idea that
every day is Human Rights Day. It celebrates the fundamental proposition in the
Universal Declaration that each one of us, everywhere, at all times, is
entitled to the full range of human rights. It also showcases that human rights
belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with
the same ideals and values.
As the world commemorates the Human Rights Day today, I’m earnestly
soliciting that the mandate of any adopted constitution or bye-law regarding
fundamental rights and privileges should be treated as sacrosanct or supreme by
the overall members of the society in question irrespective of their statuses,
and that every member regardless of his/her status ought to be a beneficiary to
such provision.
At this juncture, I enjoin all Rights activists and civil societies to
be fierce and uncompromising as they strive relentlessly towards upholding the
nobility of Human Rights.
COMR FRED NWAOZOR
Public
Affairs Analyst & Rights Activist
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+2348028608056
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