Why
Fundamental rights must be protected for the sake of human rights
Dilrook Kannangara
A fundamental right is a right that is contained in a country's Constitution.These
fundamental rights usually encompass those rights considered natural
human rights. In order to protect fundamental rights, the Constitution
of the country must be protected, upheld and allowed to execute its
provisions at all times. When the sovereignty of a Constitution is violated,
fundamental rights that stem from such a Constitution are also violated.
In the Sri Lankan context, the government of Sri Lanka has allowed all
these rights of all citizens subject to a very few exceptions affecting
a very few percentage of individuals necessitated by terrorist activity
that has threatened not a few but all fundamental rights of all citizens.
Therefore, the protection of fundamental rights, the Constitution that
awards such rights, peoples’ democratic rights to enact laws as
they need and protection of the sovereignty of the nation are prerequisites
to the protection of rights.
It should also be noted that all these above rights are violated all
the time by the LTTE within its reign. The right to life has been denied
to many civilians, democratic politicians with differing views, its
own cadres. The right to marry/raise children/associate/express/law
enforcement/education/happiness/vote/contract are violated entirely
to the people under its jackboot.
Human Rights and other rights in the modern world
Human rights refer to "the basic rights and freedoms to which all
humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty,
freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law."
There are other rights apart from human rights including animal rights,
women’s rights, men’s rights, gay rights, workers’ rights,
etc. that rank par with human rights. However, most of these are based
on the value systems of Christian countries in the West and often clash
with other value systems. A good example is how the Iranian representative
at the UN once declared that the UNHR Convention follows Jewish-Christian
values and fails to recognise Islamic values. He is absolutely right
and his remarks must form an essential basis of assessing human and
other rights (other than those encompassed into fundamental rights in
a nations Constitution) the world over. The failure to modify the UNHR
Convention taking into account Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and other religious
values and other relevant value systems is marked by escalating violence
the world over and the UN’s increasing inability to handle them.
All attempted forcing of ‘Jewish-Christian’ human rights have
failed in countries where the value systems do not depend on ‘Jewish-Christian’
value systems. Take the Israel-Palestine conflict for example; the values
of Jewish-Christian sects are in a head-on collision with that of Islamic
values. The ‘Jewish-Christian’ sect is backed by heavy weapons
including nuclear weapons and financial strength whereas the Islamic
sect is not. Military might and financial strangulation are essentially
a part of the ‘Jewish-Christian’ value system. Therefore,
these are used not only to suppress the Islamic-values-based-human rights,
but also to suppress the fundamental rights of Palestinians. Their elected
representatives of the Hamas Party were ignored by the Masters of the
UN, the human rights humbugs and donors. Divisions were created among
Palestinians by providing aid and weapons to the pro-Israeli president
against the Hamas-led parliament. It has amounted to a mockery of the
Palestinian Constitution. Hence what fundamental rights can it uphold
for those besieged Palestinians? The futility of protecting the Palestinians’
human rights at the expense of their fundamental rights is evident from
this example. It emphasises the need to uphold a country’s fundamental
rights (by honouring its sovereignty) above protecting its human rights.
Sri Lanka has enough evidence how the international mediators, facilitators
and monitors have rendered ineffective and at times played into the
hands of terrorists who are determined to violate the Constitution and
take away the fundamental rights of all citizens. The participation
of European monitors was changed many a time by the LTTE and never by
the government of Sri Lanka. In 2006, the LTTE demanded that all monitors
from the EU leave after the EU passed a resolution branding the LTTE
as terrorists.
In fact, the human rights movement in the West has grown beyond the
‘Jewish-Christian’ values into a more ‘personal-realisation’
movement today; they have encompassed gay rights which go against the
very value systems of many Asian, African and even American and European
societies! For instance, Sri Lanka, Malaysia or India will never accept
gay rights although the gay may have their share of rights to marry,
love and raise a ‘family’ their way. However, a number of
countries have legally adopted gay rights. There are many other aspects
of modern human rights that do not sit comfortably with cultural and
fundamental (legalised) rights.
Therefore it can be inferred that human rights are more subjective whereas
fundamental rights are objective, written (in most cases), specific
and relevant to the society that intentionally and effort fully enacted
them.
In the Sri Lankan context, the various rights (fundamental, human, other)
of its citizens and the order of their importance (and unimportance)
is best defined in the Sri Lankan Constitution and stems from Constitutional
provisions when interpreted in conjunction with other enacted laws.
This is the case of all democratic countries and that is how it should
be. The legislature in Sri Lanka is functioning; and so is the judiciary.
The armed forces and police have behaved with enormous restraint amid
provocations by the terrorists, their sympathisers/henchmen and others
with hidden agendas. A case in point is the misconduct of the members
of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) faced with the same ground
realities as the Sri Lankan security forces; very large scale human
rights violations were committed by the IPKF; especially sexual assaults
including rape that was nothing less than monumental. Only recent comparable
crimes are the ones committed by coalition forces in Abu Graib.
Another oddity in Sri Lanka is the existence of Lankan-value-based-rights.
It is too Sri Lanka to provide such facilities including free food,
medicine, education, etc. to the enemy. The reason for this strange
unparalleled behaviour may be found in Lanka’s Buddhist heritage.
These of course look funny and irrelevant within a ‘Jewish-Christian’
framework of human rights. Any interference of the UN or any other international
group would surely extinct these rights of indigenous origins. It is
like introducing a harmless-looking external species to an eco system
that might completely destroy the eco system eventually.
Other complications in Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan government is fighting a bigger enemy than its size.
Although the LTTE has a fighting cadre of less than 30,000 mostly children,
ancillaries and forced recruits which is very smaller than the national
army, the LTTE has a bigger global presence. Their large global presence
is evidenced by the fact that it is a banned terrorist organisation
in more than 32 countries. Its revenue from overseas charities and extortions
run into a few hundred million dollars each year, and growing; its net
profit from global terror networks amounts to USD 300 million according
to Jane’s Defence Weekly. This is higher than the Lankan government’s
defence capital expenditure. Similarly the LTTE propaganda mechanism
is very strong; much stronger than that of the government that does
not have any specific arm for counter propaganda. The number of LTTE
aligned websites is enormous whereas it is only a handful that supports
the Sri Lankan cause. Terror sympathisers have even gathered in large
numbers at international cricket events and have permeated into NGOs,
embassies and even the UN’s local office!
The Lankan political sphere is characterised by a few strong personalities;
the Opposition always tends to do whatever it can to grab power. As
a result many Opposition politicians (whoever in the Opposition) support
anything that makes things difficult for the government irrespective
of the repercussions of such acts. When one politician promises (while
in the Opposition) to hand over part of the country to the terrorists,
his opponent (once again while in the Opposition) promises to hand over
the same strip of land to the same terrorists for ten years! Elections
have turned to mini battles where the political supporters kill each
other. As a result the credibility of politicians who criticise the
government on human rights has taken a dip. It is therefore, not surprising
that the present Opposition Leader who also shouts about human rights
actively committed mass murder in person in 1989 in a place called Batalanda
where hundreds of insurgents were tortured and killed.
Then there are heavily racial oriented political parties that do not
care for anything, the rights of other races. Most notably TNA, SLMC
and TULF are such political parties; their allegations are always lopsided
and they never blame the LTTE for acts of terrorism. Instead they implicate
the government all the time.
NGOs and other bodies that function in Lanka have enormous power owing
to their unrestricted behaviour unseen in many Asian countries. They
have their own specific agendas although they all apparently support
human rights. Their biggest driving force is the continuation of their
‘disaster management’ projects in Lanka; the moment the conflict
is resolved for good, they go out of business. Thanks to their financial
strength and widespread poverty, their influence on the local polity
is magnified.
The large Tamil Diaspora is another force that affects the equation.
They are mostly motivated by the fact that there is no homeland for
the 75 million Tamils the world over. Sri Lanka’s population is
only 20 million compared against the Goliath Tamil population in the
world. The LTTE has exploited this opportunity to wage war on Sri Lanka
to grab a landmass the size of one third of Sri Lanka (22,000 square
kilometres) to create a homeland for the 75 million; an impossible task
by demographics. Apart from reasons of unsustainable population, this
effort also lacks reason. Already about 65 million Tamils (approx 90%)
live in Tamil Nadu and almost all Tamil cultural productions are made
in Tamil Nadu which is no doubt the Tamil cultural homeland. Unless
the belief that Sri Lanka is a soft target is expelled, the attempts
and financing by the Tamil Diaspora will continue.
Amidst all these the Lankan people and their brothers and sisters in
the armed forces have been defiant in their war against terror. They
exercise their voting rights and other rights awarded by the Constitution,
which was enacted without any spill of blood or armed struggle.
The way ahead for the UN on human rights in Sri Lanka
The UN must essentially adopt a participatory approach to human rights
in Sri Lanka without employing tactics of bullying. Human rights protection
must be left to the Constitution and Institutions that are functioning
well. UN and others concerned over human rights should also take into
account the uniqueness of the situation, peoples’ democratic rights
and their wishes to live in a country sans terrorists.
The good of the Sri Lankan government and the security forces must be
protected and these endeavours need to be helped financially so that
the good will spread. Any UN take-over of the tasks hitherto managed
by the nation and its functioning democratic institutions means the
complete demise of these mechanisms and institutions.
Sri Lanka can never become a failed state if the legitimate armed forces
can control the entire island after exterminating the LTTE. At this
juncture there are two causes of action; it can either give-in to LTTE
terrorists and fail or fight for the extermination of the LTTE which
will result in one nation run on votes not bullying. As said of bad
may be done to do good, especially when faced with the world’s
most ruthless terrorists (LTTE- Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam).These
practical realities must be encased into any UN attempt to ensure the
protection of human rights. A confrontational approach, on the other
hand, will fail miserably and the main casualty will be either fundamental
rights or human rights depending on who (a hated UN or an embattled
government) wins the confrontation.
However, the UN has lost its credibility on human rights. If 600,000
deaths in Iraq and another 200,000 in Afghanistan don’t justify
a UN monitoring office while propagating one for Sri Lanka, the UN must
be governed by hypocrisy and hypocrisy cannot make the world a better
place. Ms Louise Arbour goes home empty handed after she failed to win
a multi million dollar fatcat project. The Sri Lankan ‘peace’
industry is worth many times more than its war, but, ironically for
the ‘peace’ industry to flourish the war should continue to
wage! The salary of a peace activist is at least twenty (20) times that
of the highest paid defence official; peace activists get more foreign
trips than the army general, a peace activist is safer than an army
officer and therefore a peace worker has a bigger stake in the war!
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