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Hiding injustice behind smoke screens of economic growth

By Sadia Dehlvi

The Amnesty International Report 2008 was jointly released by Professor Mushir ul Hasan, activist writer Sadia Dehlvi and journalist Vinod Vershney at a function held on 28th May in New Delhi. The report was released simultaneously in a hundred and fifty countries. Text of the speech by Sadia Dehalvi on this occasion

The effort of Amnesty International is commendable as they inform us of ground realities of human rights abuses in the world. I express my solidarity with Amnesty in their continued commitment of establishing a just and equitable social order.

Reading the Amnesty report for the year 2008 has been a sobering experience, which stirs the conscience, and for a while one feels that the world has stopped making any sense. At a time where many are desensitised to human suffering, Amnesty informs us much of what is seriously wrong with planet earth. In order to find genuine solutions it is necessary to know and acknowledge problems that exist with the human condition. The report informs us that America, the world’s most powerful state sets the standard for government behaviour globally. Concerned Indian citizens are alarmed at the tendency of the Indian Government to replicate the American model of fighting terror with scant regard to India’s own dismal record of Human rights in states like Nagaland, Manipur, Gujrat and Kashnir.

According to the Indian government’s own admission, there are never more than three or four thousand militants in the Kashmir at any given time. However, there remains an army of over seven hundred thousand troops in the valley which is clearly there to subjugate the people and not just to check the militancy.

The report confirms that gender related crimes are found all over the world, even in countries that like to see themselves as civilised and others as barbaric and medieval. Sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape, trafficking and the forcing of morality codes remain unacceptable atrocities that need to be battled globally. In the midst of other seemingly more important debates, gender injustices now exist in an invisible realm and we hear of them only occasionally when they prove to be sensational enough and news worthy. With abusers usually getting away with impunity the crimes have become more widespread. Crimes against women show lack of political will and deep rooted cultural prejudices.

Whenever there is social unrest it is women who unfortunately suffer the most. Women are minorities within a minority and suffer a double impact resulting from discrimination which they face from outside their communities and from within their own people. Be it the black women and native American women in America, Christian women in Pakistan, Hindu women in Bangladesh or Muslim women in India, they continue to suffer and state authorities have failed to effectively address their problems. In the subcontinent we have a horrific number of honour killings, dowry deaths, caste crimes and reckless tribal laws that lead to death and destruction of families. Women remain easy targets for tribal, caste political retaliation and enforcing of moral behavioural codes. When women are not the immediate targets of civil or state atrocities, even then they suffer as their men are killed, kidnapped, detained or simply remain unemployed and poor.

I was particularly disturbed on reading that a woman, Zakia Zaki who ran a peace radio was shot by gunmen at her home in Afghanistan. Women who are human right defenders face assassination threats on a constant basis. In India we have police brutalities, unlawful killings and violence resulting from the war on terror and displacements from areas that need to be developed. We have seen reports of forced evictions with state support that have led to rape, loot and murder. There is little participation of women in the process of decision making that has lead to a failure of extending economic, social and cultural rights to women, particularly to those from marginalised communities.

The report gives us an insight to the behaviour of those who hold power and those who are powerless. It brings us stories of extreme brutalities and of extreme courage as it counts the large number of people who have lost their lives upholding values of dignity, secularism, democracy and gender equity. We salute their spirit for taking higher moral ground and inspiring citizen movements against corrupt and unjust regimes.

However, it is encouraging to see peoples movements demanding that leaders be accountable for their actions and uphold human rights. Even in America we see millions of people speaking out against the war in Iraq, there are hundreds of lawyers agitating in Pakistan, monks in Myanmar and they have the support of ordinary citizens.

I end on a quote by Arundhari Roy which I read last night, “Not Speaking out is just as political an act as speaking out”. The Amnesty report is a wake up call to the fact that we cannot afford to hide realities of injustice behind smoke screens of words like development and economic growth. Hopefully we will see more global movements like Amnesty that alone has over two million members from a hundred and fifty countries. They have both the courage and the vision to investigate and campaign against human rights abuses making way for an individual’s basic right to a life of dignity and freedom. For an overall genuine change to take place a global response is required to institutionalise gender equality and social justice.

Link:
http://www.amnesty.org.in/