On Tuesday last, Guyana joined the rest of the world in observing Human Rights Day, which was commemorated under the theme, “Youth Standing Up for Human Rights”. This theme was selected in celebration of the greater role young people have been playing in demanding their rights.
Youth protest has always been a force in the world, but this year, more than any other, young people and children have been marching and speaking out, particularly on climate change, but also on the trampling of other rights. Emulating their peers like Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, Greta Thunberg of Sweden, Mari Copeny and Isra Hirsi of the United States, Autumn Peltier of Canada, Bruno Rodriguez of Argentina, Helen Tavares of Cape Verde, Helena Gualinga of the Ecuadorian Amazon and others, millions of global youth have decided that they will speak for themselves on issues like the right to a healthy environment, the right to a future, to education, to safety, to peace, to justice and the right to equal opportunities regardless of their age, gender or race, basically their human rights.
Condensed, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that all human beings, born free and equal in dignity and rights, are entitled to all rights and freedoms without distinction to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Every human being has the right to life, liberty, security of person, recognition as a person before the law and without any discrimination equal protection of the law. Everyone also has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association. Further, everyone has the right to take part in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives, the right to work, to free choice of employment, and without any discrimination, equal pay for equal work. Everyone also has the right to education, among other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
Tuesday marked 71 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris, France. For just as long, the human rights as declared above and the others excluded for reasons of space have continued to be violated by governments, institutions, corporations and other individuals to suit their narrow ends.
The ease with which human rights are trampled on is more than likely due to the fact that too many people still do not know what constitutes their human rights and how they may seek redress if these are not extended to them or are removed. Calls have been made for the deepening and widening of human rights education, including suggestions for basic rights to be included in the curriculum of primary schools and for simplified lists of these rights to be visibly available in workplaces and other public spaces.
Experiences published in this week’s Sunday Stabroek, as related by two women, one who is disabled and the other living with HIV, are clear examples of why wider human rights education is needed. In the first instance, one of the issues raised concerned the right to education. Ms Simone Poole, who became disabled as a result of an accident while still a child, was denied a secondary education because she was unable to climb the stairs at her school. She was forced to drop out as no allowances were made for her disability. This is still an issue at the majority of public schools in Guyana, something that successive governments have ignored even when building new schools.
In the second instance, the woman living with HIV is unwilling to publicly declare her status because she knows she, and, perhaps members of her family though they are not HIV positive, are likely to face discrimination. She had faced it in the past and is determined not to have to go through it again.
Rampant gender inequality, a vestige of the patriarchal system, which is dying a very slow death, remains a sticking point despite years of activism, meetings and even the signing and ratifying of conventions. The movement to address climate change is also slow, because governments fail to act. It is perhaps the lack of action for the most part, on this and several other issues, that has stirred this generation’s youth, who are not content to sit and wait for decisions about the future to be made by people who will not even be part of it, as one young activist succinctly put it.
Youths are standing up and speaking out, unafraid and unabashed even in the face of challenges. They are showing that they are ready to take charge, that youths are the future and the future is now. It is inspirational and might just be exactly what the world needs right now.
