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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.11
March 13, 2000


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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.

Dear friends,

We are glad to introduce a reflection sent to us by one of our colleagues where a comparison is made of two worlds : one in which the spirit of community and cooperation prevails and where faith is seen as something to be lived in public and the other where individualism and competition predominates with faith being  seen as a private matter. The paper concludes with a challenge to the North to re-examine its priorities in life.

We are equally glad to share with you the proposals made by the religious personnel of the four religions at the workshop on the UN Convention on Torture, regarding ways that it can be promoted. A poster prepared for the same occasion is available for distribution which can be used by the Christians during the time of Lent .

However the main item here is our appeal to the generous members and the agencies regarding the plight of the East Timorese living in the remotest part of  East Timor deprived of some of the basic needs.

Thanks for your comments following our publication of the case of Bhavani indicating that it is not an isolated case. Hence the need to promote the UN Convention against torture.

Last not least is our comment on Pope's plea for forgiveness. The editor

Please notify us in case your e-mail address is changed.

1) The Plight Of The East Timorese In Lolotoi - Fr.Pietr Krakowzcyk (Courtesy Mr. Paul Harris)
2) Pope's Plea For Pardon - A Step In The Right Direction : A Comment
3) What The Religious Groups Can Do To Promote 
The Convention Against Torture And Other Forms Of Inhuman And Degrading Treatment Or Punishment
4) A New Role For Religion - By Bruce Van Voorhis
5) Announcements - Availability Of Educational Material

1)  The Plight Of The East Timorese In Lolotoi - Fr.Pietr Krakowzcyk (Courtesy Mr. Paul Harris)

Lolotoi, Bobonaro parish

March 5, 2000

To anyone who is concerned from UNTAET, Government and journalists

Lolotoi is located in the Western part of East Timor, close to the border with West Timor (in Bobonaro district).  The area is divided into seven villages.  Now, there are about seven thousand people that live in the area.

The people of Lolotoi are suffering silently.  Because of the new border between West and East Timor they are cut off from Atambua (the city in Indonesian part of Timor) and because of the destroyed road they are cut off from Maliana (the capital city of the Bobonaro district).  This isolation from those important cities is a cause of their sufferings.

The general distribution of food run by WFP (World Food Program) was never done properly and sufficiently.  Up to now (March 5, 2000), there are people who received only 5 kg. of rice and 6 or 8 kg. of corn per person.  How can someone survive on this amount of food since October 1999??  What about the infants and little children, who need rice as a main source of proteins?

During the war of 1999, majority of the people ran to the forest and spent there more than a month.  Many of them came back to their houses sick.  Yet, Lolotoi area does not have health care.  World Vision that is responsible for health care of that area is not able to reach the place on the permanent basis, because of the bad roads.  Together with WFP, World Vision is based in Maliana three hours drive by car to Lolotoi).  So now, because of the road they come or not.  That means that people live with their untreated sicknesses.  Lately, both parents died within a period of two months because of TB, leaving behind two children.

There is now rainy season in the area that washes away the roads.  And yet no one pays attention to this fact.  The people with scoops and pickaxes are not able to repair a land slide or washed up road.  There is a need for heavy equipment, but no-one has it in the area.

In the name of the people of Lolotoi, I'm asking for concrete actions not for promises that were never fulfilled.  We don't want also to hear that we have to be patient.  The lack of nutritious food, the lack of health care, can and will have an affect on the physical and psychological health of the people, especially the children.  You can't live only on cassava and corn, and at the same time be able to study or work hard.

I also invite the people of good will to the area, to see by themselves the difficult condition of life.  We will be waiting for them.

With great respect and hope that this voice will receive a concrete answer,

sincerely yours

Fr. Pietr Krakowzcyk
from Lolotoi

2)   Pope's Plea For Pardon - A Step In The Right Direction : A Comment

It was a quite a touching moment in the history of religions, and in the catholic church in particular when the aged Pope saught pardon from the world for errors and mistakes of the church for  the last two thousand years. Whether the plea is complete or not is altogether a different matter : The remarkable thing is that the leader of the catholic church has had the courage and the humility to come to terms with truth.

It is a sad fact about religions that when it comes to self criticism, the religious leaders usually shy away. The insitence of ones correctness and otherrs failures has contributed a great deal to world's tensions and suferings throughout centuries. A different approach is not only welcome, but needed.

The Pope's plea is very much in the direction of the modern human rights movement which insists on Truth Commissions and even Intenational Tribulals as a means of dealing with the past and as apath to reconciliation.

(For more on this topic see the next issue) 

3) What the Religious Groups can do to Promote 
    The Convention against Torture and other Forms  of Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

1) The Convention should be taught at all levels: the schools, universities, adult education centers, houses of religious formation and the community centres.

2) The translations of the Convention being made easily available in all languages

3) The explanations and the commentaries on the Convention together with the statement made at this meeting being made available.

4) In all human rights meetings and publications there should be an explanation of the Convention and comments on how it is implemented.

5) For countries which have not ratified the Convention, and have not incorporated into the domestic law, efforts must be made to expedite the process of ratification and implementation.

6) Human rights groups, which are monitoring violations, should specifically monitor violations under this convention. In S. Asia where there had been so many violations under this convention, the response has been quite poor. Compared to the extent of violations the degree of reporting is poor.

7) Human rights groups dealing with legal aid should also pay special attention to victims of torture. More groups, including religious groups should be encouraged to provide assistance to these victims, at local levels such as parish or village temple levels.

8) The idea of trauma rehabilitation must be introduced and supported. The victims and their families should have easy access to such treatment.

9) The medical profession must be sensitized to the problems related to torture. They should take special care to provide medical assistance, as well as proper medical reports, which may be used at legal proceedings.

10.) Human rights groups should make special effort to obtain compensation for the victims: such compensation must be given speedily and must be adequate. Cumbersome legal procedures should be abandoned and easier forms of redress must be developed.

11.) The national human rights commissions have a very special responsibility to provide redress to the victims of torture: they also should provide nationwide education against the practice of TORTURE. As the commissions have access to national media - print and electronic- they must use such media, on a regular basis, to discourage and eliminate the practice of torture. Victims should be educated to seek legal redress.

12.) The religious groups which have their own media facilities such as newspapers, the radio or even TV time, should use such facilities to instruct people about the Convention and expose its violations.  

13.) The religious groups should also awaken the society to the problems emerging in recent times due to the collapse of the legal system, particularly the criminal justice system. They must remind the society, that if the people loose faith in these institutions, very drastic consequences can follow, threatening the security of everyone. The religious groups can pay special attention to minorities who suffer most in this regard.

14.) The modern media offers enormous possibilities of networking on this issue. Local, national, regional and international networks must be used for campaigning for this purpose. It is essential that the people gain the necessary skills in the use such media, writing, and in communication. Special training should be given in writing through the courtesy of persons who already have such skills. The communications skills needed are so sophisticated the people therefore must be encouraged to acquire them: the persons who have such skills must be encouraged to extend a helping hand.  

4 )  A New Role for Religion

Almost two years ago I left Hong Kong and my work at the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to study in the United States. Before returning to Hong Kong to resume my work at AHRC, I recently took part in a two-week exposure program in Mexico that inspired some thoughts that I would like to share.

First of all, there is, of course, a wide gulf between the socio-economic realities of life for most people south of the U.S.-Mexican border70 percent of Mexico's population lives a life of povertyand for most of those north of it who live at least a middle-class existence. Perhaps the gap though in these two different realities is best reflected in what is important to people. For most of those living in Mexico and elsewhere in the South, life is defined by a daily search for the essentials of lifefood, clothing, shelter, etc.while in the United States or other areas of the North life's pursuits are driven by the dictates of a pop culture that is transmitted and delineated by the mass media, especially by the pervasive presence of advertising. Thus, having a mobile phone, joining a health club, or investing in stocks are some of life's decisions that preoccupy people of the North. Life in this world gains its importance and meaning through consumption. Granted, it is a shallow existence, but it is proclaimed through advertising as nirvana, and the world is called to emulate it as a path to happiness. Materialism is elevated in this process to the status of a conscious or, more likely, unconscious new god.

Thus, in these two different realities, it is not surprising that the religious faith and values of the poor that one frequently encounters in the South are much different than those commonly found in the affluent North. Because those in the South are closer to the essentials of life, their lives are often expressed more authentically; there are fewer pretensions. As a result of the realities of their lives, there is generally more community among human relationships and less individualism in the South, more cooperation and less competition, more humility and less egotism and arrogance.

This brief description of two different worlds highlights some different notions of how life should be lived, for the values of the South, as just noted, are grounded in community and cooperation while those in the North find their roots in individualism and competition. The spirituality that flows from such different basic contexts naturally has a different foundation as well. For the poor of Mexico who follow the Christian theology of liberation, for instance, they believe that faith is to be lived out in the public realm; one's faith is expressed outside the walls of one's place of worship. Believers assume responsibility for transforming society in order to make justice for all a cornerstone of society. Meanwhile, for those living a more affluent lifestyle in the United States, faith is oftentimes considered a private matter whose objective is salvation for the individual believer; faith is confined within the walls of the place of worship. In the former view of life, faith and society have a relationship; in the latter perception, faith becomes isolated from society.

This preoccupation with wealth in the North, I believe, and the emphasis on separating heaven and earth, of divorcing spirituality and life in this world, creates an emptiness inside individual believers and a society that makes frivolous things important and important things frivolous. How then can the North regain its soul and rearrange its priorities in life?

One way perhaps to address this question is to modify the predominant economic system of the North. Since capitalism is the economic system that reigns in the North and socialism has lost its credibility in most quarters at the moment, is there any way that capitalism can be transformed and with it the societies that have enshrined it as their economic system?

A potential answer to this necessary question is to change the rules and goals of capitalism. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world are working to change the economic policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), and other rule-setting institutions to make their actions less injurious to the poor. Consequently, these brief thoughts will not dwell on the economic rules that define the way the game of capitalism is played but will instead focus on the goals of capitalism.

First of all, it must be stated that these goals stand as invisible pillars supporting and propping up this economic system, but they are rarely, if ever, questioned. Moreover, they are, at least unconsciously, deemed to be part of the natural economic order of life. It is these underlying assumptions that need to be challenged if capitalist societies are to be transformed to serve the interests of all of their members, not just their elites.

What then are the basic economic goals of a person embedded in a capitalist system? It will come as no surprise that they are to accumulate as much wealth as possible and to constantly consume. In fact, capitalism gives people the legitimacy, the permissionindeed, the encouragementto amass wealth and to consume endlessly, to buy gadgets and things that one does not really need. Moreover, in capitalist societies, one's identity and statusone's classis determined by the amount of wealth one has collected and the capability to consume that this confers.

If there is to be any fundamental change then in capitalist societies, there is, consequently, a need to convert the present fascination with greed into a fascination with sharing in order to transform the exploitation and injustice of the present capitalist system. Thus, instead of acquiring wealth and consuming it endlessly, the objective of the "new" capitalist system must be to redistribute wealth to ensure that all people in society have a certain quality of life in which they can live with dignity. This prescription, of course, echoes the premises of socialism, but it is not impossible for it also to become a hallmark of the predominant capitalist system if the basic goals of the game of capitalism are changed and enforced through new socio-economic norms that value the sharing of wealth and devalue its massive accumulation and ostentatious consumption. The most successful people in this transformed society would then be seen to be those who have distributed wealth rather than those who have amassed it. In this way, the definition of being economically successful would be altered, and the necessary task of redistributing wealth would have an ideological underpinning in the economic system. For "realists" who might argue that it is not in human nature or the self-interests of people to make such "sacrifices," one can point out that what people may give up in visible material wealth they may acquire in invisible spiritual wealth. A wealth that cannot be noted by the senses does not make it any less real and valuable.

Why is this discussion important for the peoples of the South though, whether the South is Mexico, Asia, or other regions of the world? It has relevance because the capitalism of the North is being exported around the globe. It is not just an economic system but is also an ideology loaded with lifestyles, values, and attitudes. Capitalism is not only a mode of production but also a mentality. It poses a threat to the communal and cooperative nature of most peoples of the South.

If the vision that has been presented is to become closer to reality, the institutions in society that give meaning to lifereligion, education, and familywill have to play a leading role in transforming the goals of the capitalist system. It is obviously not an easy or short-term task, but it is one path toward alleviating the everyday violence and discrimination of poverty.

In closing, I welcome the comments of others about these initial thoughts in order to clarify ideas, spark discussion, and hopefully move toward transforming our societies.

5)   Announcements - Availability Of Educational Material

We would like to recommend the educational material produced by WOREC in Nepal for those involved in training and advocacy work on trafficking in women. Please contact WOREC:worec@healthnet.org.np for the manual "Advocacy against Trafficking in Women Training Manual"