Advancing human rights

UN Human Rights Day poster

"To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity." (Nelson Mandela)

The world will observe Human Rights Day on Friday 10 December. The theme this year is: EQUALITY - Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights. The UN reminds us that the theme relates to "Equality" and Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Sadly, we have a long way to go to truly reduce inequalities and to advance human rights. I am in London at the moment, and the tragic murder of six-year old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, highlights the fact that love and compassion are virtues that are sorely missing in our world. Pope Francis has said that "Every child that arrives is God's gift."

Little Arthur was born free, with a dignity that was innate, inviolable and inalienable. His dignity and rights should have been protected, not only by his family, but by those charged with responsibility to ensure the safety of children in situations such as his. He suffered an "unsurvivable brain injury" on 16 June 2020 and died in hospital the next day. We await the inquiry.

Read the BBC report entitled: 'Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: What were the opportunities missed to save him?' ( www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59519562 ). Arthur's stepmother Emma Tustin, 32, has been jailed for life for his murder, and will serve a minimum term of 29 years. Her partner - Arthur's father, 29-year-old Thomas Hughes - was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter at Coventry Crown Court. Little Arthur had been poisoned, starved and beaten in a campaign of "evil" abuse. The judge, Mr Justice Mark Wall QC, said the trial had been "without doubt one of the most distressing and disturbing cases I have had to deal with". He told Tustin and Hughes: "This cruel and inhuman treatment of Arthur was a deliberate decision by you to brush off his cries for help as naughtiness." Many of us will forever be haunted by the audio of Arthur crying "no one loves me" and "no one's going to feed me."

How many of our children in the UK and the world cry out for help and their cries are not heard? Eleanor Roosevelt rightly said: "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home -- so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world..... Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

As I read about the horrors little Arthur endured, the plight of many of our little ones in Trinidad and Tobago flooded my mind e.g. four-year-old Amy Annamunthodo, who was tortured and beaten to death, burned with cigarettes, hung from her hair and beaten until her heart ruptured; and six-year-old Keyana Cumberbatch whose body was found stuffed in a barrel in the family's apartment in D'Abadie. Their dignity and human rights were trampled upon.

Pope Francis has made a "heartfelt appeal to all those that have institutional responsibilities, asking them to put human rights at the center of all policies…even when that means going against the current". He has said: "The firm commitment for human rights springs from an awareness of the unique and supreme value of each person - made in the image and likeness of God… We believe that the measure of any society is whether what we do threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person…Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities."

The challenge we have is that often policies contain all the right words - as do our Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but implementing these remain a forlorn dream. The Catholic Church teaches that the most fundamental of social justice principles, upon which all other principles are based, is the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person. We cannot afford to be indifferent in the face of human rights violations. You and I can and must make a difference.

In a world in which many have lost their moral compass and in which selfishness, greed, secularism and moral relativism obfuscate priorities and stand as obstacles to God's mercy, let's stand on the side of justice and respect, protect and promote human rights.

Are we doing all that we can to fulfil our human rights obligations?

Leela Ramdeen is Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice & Trinidad & Tobago Archdiocese's Ministry for Migrants and Refugees

Website: http://rcsocialjusticett.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ccsjtt

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Twitter: @ammrcatholictt1.