Getting Serious About Human Rights
[Music]
2020 has been a staggering
year 2020 has made it abundantly clear
that the us
is not a human rights-based society
children in cages families separated and
forced into the shadows
asylum seekers casually sent home to
perilous fates
we’ve seen so much preventable suffering
around covet 19.
george floyd tortured and murdered in
broad daylight
having to ask how many more time after
time
and then activists treated like enemy
combatants in our streets
i’m a human rights and peace
practitioner i have a phd
in human rights and peace studies that’s
one of those titles that can invite some
some curious reactions
over the last decade i’ve had the
opportunity of working with some of the
most
marginalized but resilient people on the
planet
i work with local groups creating change
in the toughest of circumstances
when i moved home to the u.s to nebraska
i wasn’t sure how any of it would
translate
america has long had serious problems
when it comes to human rights and
violence
but i never thought there’d be a
willingness to actually tackle
those issues until 2020 author and
activist
kimberly jones captured weld the angst
behind the unprecedented civil unrest
we’ve seen this year
jones message resonated because it is
undeniable
our social contract has been
deliberately broken
over and over again today
our social contract feels broken beyond
repair
it’s hard to even imagine win wins in
this hour of global need
and as authoritarian regimes all over
the world gain strength in measurable
ways
america is drunk at the wheel
so how did we get here
it is not that democracy is failing in
the u.s
it is that the u.s is failing democracy
we have failed to live up to a standard
of achievement that we espouse
all over the world we go to war in the
name of human rights
we go to great lengths to promote human
rights in every other country
but at home we fall devastatingly short
we don’t know what human rights are how
they work or why they exist
we don’t teach human rights in our
schools
our human rights institutions are
impotent
we treat human rights as fluffy and
discretionary
and here we are so what
now the constitution is clearly
not getting the job done our legal
political and economic systems
elevate people with power and prey upon
those without it
we are surrounded by violence violence
is not only physical
but structural and cultural that
violence
undermines any chance of liberty and
justice for all
we desperately need a better road map
the good news is we already have one
in 1948 former first lady eleanor
roosevelt presented the universal
declaration of human rights to the world
it was a world
shifting document think of the backdrop
world war
ii brought humanity to its knees it was
a display of just how predatory
humankind can be with two world wars
front of mind
roosevelt and her team went to work they
went to work on producing a blueprint
to protect human beings from ourselves
that is the udhr the udhr is one of the
most important documents in human
history
championed by a former first lady and
very few
americans have ever heard of it we have
all but discarded it
our dismissal of the udhr and human
rights in general
has allowed poor discourse and practice
to proliferate human rights are about
protecting the species
and we treat this stuff like it’s a game
we neglect the reality that civil
political economic social and cultural
rights are all indivisible
and interdependent we treat freedom as
one-dimensional
it is not freedom restraint and
responsibility
all go hand-in-hand that is the only way
to realize collective freedom from fear
collective freedom from want
and collective freedom to take action on
one’s own behalf
only when everyone is equally free and
accountable
does liberty and justice for all become
possible
but we are not anchored in
accountability and i’m not only
referring to people in positions of
power
this is a collective problem i am
certainly guilty of not being
accountable enough
think about the things we consume we buy
from brands that are doing harm
all over the world and we know it
think about those boxes arriving on our
doorsteps
the story behind those boxes features
abuse
overseas and at home the people who make
those goods and fill those orders
are taking on great risk during this
pandemic to keep our economy afloat
companies are celebrating those workers
in their commercials
and at the very same time
actively prohibiting them from
collectively organizing and having a
voice
article 23 of the udhr makes it very
clear
that unionizing is a human right it is a
human right because it is often the only
way
that people who face power disparities
can protect themselves
and their interests it’s on us to get
accountable
and set these expectations where we
should see accountability we find
smokescreens
we are sold philanthropy as a substitute
for accountability
it is not on this point i’ll never
forget a conversation that i had with a
local elder in ethiopia
his name was handy so hundy was super
welcoming
but his message was sharp hundy had seen
his land stolen
his friends and family members killed
and starved
hundy watched as people preyed on his
community year after year
decade after decade hundy spoke of
foreigners casually throwing around
money
and promises and leaving behind a trail
of frustration
and hostilities hunty had no interest in
a handout
he had no interest in being saved
handy wanted the people preying on his
community to be held accountable
hundy radiated frustration because for
decades he’d been pleading for some
semblance
of equality and accountability but all
he got
was more philanthropy
the problem with philanthropy is that it
leaves people subservient
it is not designed to address structural
and political problems no amount of
philanthropy can fix broken social
contracts
the agenda is always set by those with
cash
and clout and in this sense our
over-reliance on philanthropy conflicts
with another core tenet of human rights
agency agency is about being able to
take action on your own behalf
it’s about being an agent of your own
well-being
being in control of your own faith
when i was in myanmar i had a i was
talking with this villager near a
conflict zone in shannon state
this guy brilliantly captured how
immensely important
agency is he captured the idea that
there is no alternative to agency
so here’s what he said to me think of
being in a village
surrounded by land mines the locals know
where those land mines are
you don’t so are you going to follow the
villagers
are you going to ask them to follow you
it’s really that simple
as a country we miss the mark on
accountability
and agency all the time we
casually impose sanctions throughout the
world without giving a second thought to
the consequences
i spent a number number of years in
myanmar traveling the country
and talking with people about people
about sanctions including the american
sanctions against the
myanmar junta i wanted to understand
their perspective
what i heard was overwhelming resentment
and frustration
these people were scrapping every day to
create opportunities
and build their political muscles in any
way possible
they wanted information and resources
and relationships
they could use all of those things as
leverage
but sanctions gave them deprivation and
isolation
sanctions were soiled as our cure but
for the people trying to liberate
themselves from the military
dictatorship
sanctions were another disease a disease
that robbed them of their agency
and made them easier to oppress
sanctions are one of many examples where
we choose the convenient
feel good option and leave it to others
to shoulder the suffering
the result is not only frustration but
carnage
i’ve seen this firsthand in myanmar in
factories throughout
asia in the highlands of africa even the
fields of north korea
i have also seen how much savvy and
strength
and potential goes unseen and untapped
i watched as ordinary people in myanmar
mobilize themselves
they figured out how to manipulate local
officials
and then they started to figure out how
to manipulate the system
and ultimately they dislocated the
military dictatorship in myanmar
from below they turned themselves into
an
unrelenting force of change and they did
so
in spite of us we make similar mistakes
at home
there is so much enthusiasm around
combating human trafficking
it’s something of a collective obsession
but how much of that fight against human
trafficking
is about addressing vulnerabilities and
mobilizing people
how many of those efforts address the
structural violence
that pushes people into the shadows robs
them of their agency
and leaves them exposed to predators
where is the conversation about labor
trafficking
rather than confronting causes and
conditions
we treat trafficking as theater
this stuff is not theater it’s
structural
it’s a symptom of our systemic failures
to put people in a position to protect
themselves
and their families now think of how we
deal with america’s dark past
we don’t we help populations all over
the world recover from atrocities
we are the global champion of a field
called transitional justice
but at home we have yet to take the
first step towards a transition
we have yet to even start pursuing the
restorative justice
that is necessary to reckon with
america’s dark past
that past that past is something we will
never
outrun the wounds of slavery and the
native american genocide are open
and they are bleeding those wounds
cannot begin to heal until we initiate
an
actual transition built around
accountability and agency
if we confront our history become
students of the udhr
and evolve our systems accordingly we
can become
endlessly resilient and free and capable
of greatness
when human rights are properly put into
motion
when accountability is paired with
agency something beautiful and
incredibly powerful happens
every person is in a position to protect
themselves
their interests and their fellow human
beings
that is freedom that is democracy
that is what human rights are all about
and that is the only way
to overcome the predatory side of
humankind
2020 has been a reckoning but it has
given us an
opportunity to realize what america
could be
and we get there by elevating human
rights as if the fate of humanity
depends on it
because it does thank you