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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
E-Newsletter
Vol.1 No.28
December 20, 1999
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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net
Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.
Christmas is a celebration; of family life, motherhood and of
children with special devotion to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. It is
the birth of Jesus and the children born each day, an
appreciation of all that combines to produce and sustain life,
love joy and peace; the handwork of each and everyone that makes
life worth living.
Christmas is a moment of truth; revealing all that is beyond
the colorful trappings, all that denies life, the systematic
massacre of mothers and children, enslavement and imprisonment,
the destruction or denial of rights for food, medicine, security,
shelter, clean environment, and most of all the love and
affection - the sources of life.
Christmas is thoughtfulness; spare a thought for the detained
Cambodian children ( the case cited below), over two hundred
million dalits out of whom at least two thirds are women and
children – had Christ been born in south asia or southeast
asia, he would have been a dalit or a low caste - ( mentioned in
our letter to the Cardinal Wu in Hong Kong), the refugees the
migrants and the excluded in all Asian countries.
May we wish that the Christ of today and tomorrow is born in
the security, the warmth, the joy and peace And love, that the
mother that are and yet to become are recognized as the
co-creators of the cosmos, can enjoy the full dignity of life and
love,
And in that hope let us wish each other a happy Christmas.
A
Statement
relating to Children Detained in Youth Rehabilitation Centre
– by the Cambodian Lawyers
A statement by a group of 16 Cambodian Lawyers
and 23 other concerned persons who gathered at Sihanouk-Ville,
for a workshop on The Law and Human Rights organised by Legal Aid
Cambodia and The Asian Human Rights Commission;
During the last three days we discussed many
vital issues relating to Human Rights in Cambodia, arising out of
investigations by police. Among the matters discussed, one matter
disturbed us most. This is regarding the Children subjected to
arrest by police and later detained at the YRC(Youth
Rehabilitation Centre) at Phnom Penh.
From 1995 up to now around five hundred and
thirty Children have been detained at this Centre. At the moment
about 35 Children are detained here. Usual age of children is
around 13 to 17, some time back even an eight year old was
detained here. Once detained, a child may spend three to six
months there. Normally the offences are the commission of petty
thefts. There are cases where there is no evidence at all of
commission of offence. The access to lawyers, other visitors and
even to international agencies are very limited. Due to this
limitation, it is difficult to bring any case regarding them to
court. As the parents or the guardians may not be there to come
forward on behalf of very poor children, there may not be any
person to give consent to any action to be taken on their behalf.
This put these children in a helpless situation. Their plight is
even worse in instances where they are arrested in order to
solicit and extract bribe and detained when no one comes forward
to give such a bribe.
The detention of Children does not take place
according to judicial process. Therefore these detentions
constitute a form of illegal detention. Besides, it deprives the
opportunity to the judiciary to consider the cases and to
intervene in the best interest of the Children.
Detention has many adverse effects on Children.
Innocent children are kept with others who have some bad record.
Thus these children get exposed to bad influences.
This Centre needs to be brought under public
scrutiny and firm measures must be taken to prevent the abuse of
Children's Rights. The protection of Children should be the
primary concern. This Centre needs to be brought under national
and international supervision. For this purpose access to this
Centre must be ensured to Concerned Groups. The Children Rights
to obtaining legal assistance must be guaranteed. Cambodia has
ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other
basic human rights. The obligation thus undertaken must be
honoured. It is essential to ensure that any detention of
Children must be by way of judicial orders only.
We call upon of Cambodian and others outside to
take steps to help this Centre, help to ensure the protection of
these Children by raising the standards of this Centre. We
particularly call upon every one to take steps to ensure legal
assistance for these children.
Sihanouk-Ville, Cambodia
CHRISTMAS TO THE DALITS, THE EXCLUDED
His Eminence Cardinal John B. Wu
Bishop of Hong Kong
Catholic Diocese Centre, 12/F
16, Caine Road,
Hong Kong
Your Eminence,
We are sending you our warm greetings for a
happy Christmas as well as for the new millenium. We are a
regional human rights organisation based in Hong Kong making
every endeavor to pay great attention to the promotion of human
rights among the religious groups. For this purpose many
activities are conducted which includes the publication of a
weekly e-mail newsletter.
We are sure that in this period of Christmas
you must be paying a great deal of attention to the poor
following the usual spirit of the Christian tradition. Therefore,
it may not be inappropriate to place before you one of the
instances of extreme poverty and exclusion, and to seek your kind
attention regarding the matter.
The issue that we would like to highlight this
year is the one on Dalits of India who constitute 20% of the
Indian population or about 260,000,000 persons. Dalits have been
known by different names over the three milleniums. Originally
called Sudras (the lowest caste) in the Indian caste system, they
later came to be called ‘untouchables’ and were treated
even worse than the slaves. During the 20th century
they came to be called harijans and scheduled castes. With the
emergence of their own movement, they now call themselves Dalits
a word denoting ‘protest’.
Dalits of India are among the poorest; they do
such menial works as scavenging, posses no land, educational
opportunities largely restricted, a vast number unemployed, and
the dalit women suffering indescribable hardships. They are
constantly humiliated on the basis of their alleged "low
birth", treated unequally and discriminated at every point.
Some of the glaring examples of discrimination are:
- rejection of demand for just wages,
- beatings, torture, attempted murder and
actual murder by dominant castes,
- forcibly preventing occupational
changes/mobility,
- rendering forced menial services at birth,
marriage and death ceremonies of dominant castes,
- preventing exercise of franchise at
elections; harassement, threats, actual murder of elected
representatives; threats against, even forcible
prevention from, contesting in democratic elections,
- prohibited to draw water from public
village ponds/tanks/taps/wells,
- insults to and degradation of Dalit women,
- Dalit corpses prohibited from being
carried through dominant caste villages, or buried in the
latter’s graveyard’
- Prohibited to sit on par with dominant
castes in public or private places.
Caste discrimination is a form of de facto
apartheid and a complete exclusion from the society. The
Christian Churches have in the past played some role for their
up-liftment. Even recently the religious leaders of all Christian
denominations, that includes the Chairperson of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of India, met the Prime Minister to demand,
among other things, positive action for the upliftment of the
dalits.
There is now a worldwide campaign to eliminate
and eradicate the caste discrimination, and for the recognition
of social equality of all, including the dalits. Many Churches
outside of Asia have expressed their supports to the campaign and
the Danish Church Aid has declared the year 2000 as the year of
the dalits.
In such circumstances, we respectfully urge
you, as the leader of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong to add
your voice to this campaign. You may instruct the clergy and the
faithful in Hong Kong to pray specifically for dalits in the
coming year and also to support their cause in other ways. You
may also let your concern be known to the Indian government and
to the United Nations.
In this time of Christmas it is perhaps
appropriate to recall that Jesus was born to the family of a
carpenter. Under the Indian and the South Asian caste system the
carpenters were considered among the lowest caste; that is, they
were considered sudras/untouchables/ dalits.
We, once again, before we wind up this letter,
would like to wish you a happy Christmas with all those that
yearn for justice, equality and peace this Christmas and the
years to come.
Yours respectfully,
Basil
Fernando Philip Setunga
Executive Director Coordinator
Posted on 1999-12-20
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