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