Americans must uphold freedom of conscience for all
By Charles Haynes
Senior scholar, First Amendment Center
12.03.00
The world had just begun to absorb the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust when the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948. At that critical moment in history, proclaiming the inviolable dignity and inherent rights of every human being was a welcome cry of hope in a world freshly aware of the human capacity for evil.
Now, a little more than a half century later, Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 will probably come and go quietly, escaping the notice of most Americans.
But according to Amnesty International, it won't be a quiet day for the scores of Sudanese who are being tortured in Lebanon to force them to drop their asylum claims.
Nor will the day go by unnoticed by the family of T. Puroshottam, a human-rights activist in India who had his throat slit recently for daring to speak out about police torture and extrajudicial executions.
And the day will not be easy for Fatma Tokmak and her small son, Kurds who were allegedly tortured by Turkish police. According to reports, the police administered electric shocks to the two-year-old Azat and stubbed out cigarettes on his hands. Fatma was hung by her arms and sexually abused.
For all people of conscience, Dec. 10 should be a day for condemning these and thousands of similar violations of fundamental rights that occur each day throughout the world. Tragically, there remains an enormous gap between the ideals set forth in the Universal Declaration of 1948 and the living reality for millions of people whose rights are denied in the year 2000.
But will we pause to listen in the midst of our busy and (for many of us) prosperous holiday season?
However unpleasant and unsettling it may be to focus on torture and oppression at this time of year, Americans have a special responsibility to do so. After all, our very freedom to celebrate Ramadan, Hanukah, or Christmas — and the freedom not to celebrate any of the above — depends directly on our national commitment to uphold the inalienable right of freedom of conscience for every human being.
Moreover, as we learned in World War II, our freedoms can't be sustained in isolation from the actions of other nations. It's no accident that much of the 1948 Universal Declaration is modeled on our own Bill of Rights and reflects the conviction of our Framers that all people are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
Though our nation often fails to live up to these principles, our struggle to do so remains a source of inspiration to suffering people everywhere.
If we do listen to the cries for help from around the world, how can we turn our outrage into effective action?
One starting point would be to support Amnesty International's current Campaign Against Torture. By calling international attention to the plight of people like Fatma Tomak, we are doing our part to uphold the principles articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Your questions and comments are welcome. Write to:
Charles Haynes
The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center
1101 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22209
E-mail: chaynes@freedomforum.org