ARE RIGHTS DIMINISHING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION?

Dec 10, 2019 News

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International Human Rights Day 2019 finds the world with little new to acclaim in terms of progressive enjoyment of rights when viewed as a whole. The climate crisis engulfing the globe is a manifestation of human mismanagement and short-sightedness over the past thirty years which threatens to reverse human rights progress achieved by successive generations.
The world today enjoys what it enjoys because outstanding people in the generations that preceded us, through their common actions, made rights real, often at a high personal price. Most of these achievements we take so much for granted as to barely acknowledge them.
Universal suffrage – everyone being allowed to vote – for example, which displaced property ownership as the basis for choosing governments, is taken for granted; likewise, compulsory education for everyone was equally unthinkable but is now commonplace; similarly, obligations of humane treatment for prisoners or defeated opponents in war is universally accepted – in principle if not in practice; struggles to affirm workers’ rights require a chapter of their own.
Those of our generation lucky enough to enjoy this inheritance rarely see ourselves as beneficiaries of past struggles. We overlook the fact that our human rights were achieved by the battles of others. The universality of these values is a precious inheritance which is not yet complete.
As the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) recognises International Human Rights Day 2019 with its focus on youth, what the current generation has added to inherited rights to be passed on to the coming generation is an appropriate subject for reflection.
Probably the most impactful contribution has been the recognition that there are many ways of being human. Eradicating institutionalised stigma and discrimination against indigenous peoples and people with disabilities, after centuries of prejudice and of being patronised or pitied, is a matter only of recent decades.
Recognising that rights of women and the girl child are more than simply an extension of what were for centuries ‘the rights of man’, remains the most pervasive human rights challenge. But patriarchy is finally under threat from all angles.
The rights of LGBT peoples remain a work in progress, serving as the current litmus test of what constitutes civilised societies. Around the world, worship of wealth has labour rights in full retreat.
While we can take some satisfaction from these developments, the past three decades in particular has witnessed significant retrogression in areas previously considered secure. Acceptance of unrestricted accumulation of wealth has been the single most lethal influence in undermining the enjoyments of rights.
Distortion of national elections by social media giants manipulating information in personal accounts along with billionaires buying elections is carrying us back to the age of property owners choosing governments.
Economic strategies that sharpen exclusion and inequality are prompting massive migrations and refugees be it in Syria, Central America or the African sub-continent.
Overshadowing all else from the perspective of the younger generation is the ever more ominous threats generated by the climate crisis. The continued resistance of the older generation to the reality of this threat has prompted a new phenomenon of young people around the world taking issues into their own hands.
A wise response would be for the older generation to support rather than resist this phenomenon, avoiding alienation of a generation whose future it has blighted by catastrophic complacency.
Failure to ensure that the younger generation has a future to look forward to must constitute the most fundamental form of inter-generational betrayal. In light of this, an appropriate International Human Rights Day response by the older generation would be to acknowledge that the younger generation is being forced to prematurely assume adult responsibilities.
The corollary of this recognition would then be to provide the support and resources necessary for their efforts to create the changes we need. Some of the specifics of what such a commitment entails were spelt out earlier this year by young people themselves in the following terms:
We are calling on the Government of Guyana to take steps to prioritise climate justice by protecting not only human life but also promoting a world that respects all living beings. In keeping with this goal, we also call for the Government of Guyana to pay particular attention to the following specific priorities:
• Young people need to know the facts and be updated about the climate crisis in a language which everybody can understand.
• Our education system is not preparing us for the world we will inherit. We need to be equipped for the kind of jobs required by the world we’re about to enter.
• The Government must communicate to the general public in a more direct and purposeful way to bring our habits and lifestyles in line with climate constraint.
Guyana Human Rights Association

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