Calls for Greater Effort in Human Rights Movement

Basil Fernando

(Ed. note: This article is the speech delivered by Basil Fernando at the opening ceremony of the Asian conference to commemorate the Kwangju Uprising and to declare the ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER - a People’s Charter on 14 May 1998 in Kwangju, south Korea.)

That "thousand flowers may bloom" is the spirit in which the ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER - a People’s Charter is offered. That there should be a State-sponsored human rights charter and that this would come about only through the efforts of the Asian people themselves are the two premises that have been discussed by many people and groups for a long period of time. The reluctance and even the resistance of the Asian governments to discuss and agree on a human rights charter is well-known. In fact, Asia is the only region in the world where several governments have raised the objection to human rights to an ideological level. The "Asian values" debate is quite well-known.

In this context the resistance to the ideological stance of the Asian governments that oppose human rights has been led mainly by the Asian people’s organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and intellectuals. For people to express their views no authority need to be taken from the State. People’s autonomy and the autonomy of a civil society are fundamental ideas and do not depend on any need for any approval from State authorities. Moral conviction is the only authority on which the people’s expression of opinions is based.

Consensus of the people can only be achieved by open debate in which all are invited to participate. This process must be open and as much advertised as possible. The process leading to the ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER was one which was totally open to all persons and groups and as much advertised as possible within the limited resources available. The process has taken over four years, and the Charter was repeatedly sent back to thousands of organisations and people for comments and suggestions.

A process of achieving people’s consensus in the whole Asian continent can only be done through various stages. This ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER is another significant stage of working towards such consensus. The people and organisations participated in this process do not claim this Charter as a final product. This Charter is offered for the purpose of taking the debate further and to as many more people as possible. Tens of thousands of copies of this Charter are being distributed in English as well as in local languages; it is an attempt to reach a far wider audience than it had ever been attempted on a document of this nature in the Asian region. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has played and will play only a role of a facilitator. This document does not derive its authority from the AHRC or any other organisation. The document’s sources of strength are the thousands of people who have read the document and a very large number of people who have been intimately linked in the four-year consultation and the drafting process. A number of people who are so connected with the process are quite representative for they are from different nations, different identities, different genders and have different viewpoints. As it is said before, such a process could never be exhaustive. The purpose of the declaration of this Charter is to seek greater publicity for this endeavour and to get many more thousands of others involved in this debate. So far it has been a mass education exercise. We hope with this declaration there shall be even greater mass exercise. In this context the AHRC has not harboured any petty consideration of credit for itself. If credit is due for this Charter, it is due to thousands of people who have voluntarily, spontaneously and with great generosity participated in this process. And we hope that everyone else too would respond with that same spirit of equanimity and same determination to pursue the human rights of the Asian peoples. We hope that as a result of this effort a greater consensus will emerge, and even a better document or documents of this nature will emerge from collective efforts of Asian people. We also hope that the pressure generated in this way will intensify to bring about a State-sponsored Asian Human Rights Charter which will measure up to the expectations of the Asian peoples and in keeping with the international norms of human rights contained in the U.N. instruments of human rights.

This ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER - a People’s Charter is an important landmark in a thousands miles of journey for the achievement of human rights of the Asian people.

Most people in Asia today live in difficult conditions. Far too often such conditions are far too harsh. Any meaningful discourse on human rights must necessary become a discussion of the causes of such harsh conditions, and it should be an attempt to find ways to redress the human wrongs that force such wretched conditions on millions of human beings. In Asia, a human rights discourse that does not address the political, economic and social causes of poverty and repression will not be seen as a serious exercise. This Charter made an attempt to address the issues affecting fellow Asians and particularly those who are worse treated. We hope this discussion will go on and that Asians will see human rights debate as a discussion about their own lives.

May I take this opportunity to thank every one who has helped the development of this Charter. They are many and come from varied backgrounds. May I specially thank those who have given their time to attend many meetings to help in this process. May I thank the generous hosts and co-organisers of this seminar, Kwangju Citizens’ Solidarity. And may I thank each and every one of you, our Korean friends and foreign participants who have joined this meeting in the spirit of solidarity with the cause of human rights. It is only fitting that we have met in this great city baptised with the blood of martyrs who gave their lives to the cause of democracy and human rights.