From Human Dignity to International Human Rights

I felt lucky to have the privilege to follow Dr. Hong, President of FOWPAL, to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in August 2002. In various forums of different agenda in the Summit, many representatives had come to the statement that human rights are breached when the basic needs of human life cannot be fulfilled. That is to say, human rights issues have been escalated from the legal perspective to the viewpoint of living a dignified life.

While reviewing of the beginning of the 21st century, it is noted that two hundred million people in seventeen countries worldwide suffer from starvation, five hundred million people are dying, and one point three billion people whose with daily income are far behind the international poverty line - one US dollar. Among these people, women and children's are the most vulnerable ones. Women are the foundation of a family, and children are the future hope of the world. Their importance in the human society cannot be overemphasized; however, most of them very often become even more vulnerable in the society. It is expected that once these women and children’s basic human rights are fulfilled, then peace for a new society is not far away.

In numerous occasions, Dr. Hong has publicly appealed to the world that, we have only one earth; the earth cannot afford to be directly or indirectly damaged by any individual or nation, no matter the damage is long-term or short-term. We have to love other nations as we do ours. Only when all nations unite together, respect and share with one another regardless of any difference, can human kind build a society of love and peace. Many international pacifist and political figures agree with Dr. Hong. Echoing Dr. Hong’s appeal, Mr. Pincas Jawetz, Honorary International Development Committee Member of FOWPAL, stated “…… sovereignty and human rights should be redefined …… air, water, and other products alike are the common wealth of all human; so no one has the right to claim the absolute ownership of these resources, neither has the right to pollute them. ”

Dr. Hong also reiterated that the human society couldn’t be seen as satisfactory, should there be anybody whose basic human rights cannot be fulfilled. Similarly, taking the viewpoint of the butterfly effect*, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the 2001 Nobel Lecture addressed that “Today, in Afghanistan, a girl will be born. Her mother will hold her and feed her, comfort her and care for her just as any mother would anywhere in the world. In these most basic acts of human nature, humanity knows no divisions. But to be born a girl in today’s Afghanistan is to begin life centuries away from the prosperity that one small part of humanity has achieved. It is to live under conditions that many of us in this hall would consider inhuman. …... No one today is unaware of this divide between the world’s rich and poor. No one today can claim ignorance of the cost that this divide imposes on the poor and dispossessed who are no less deserving of human dignity, fundamental freedoms, security, food and education than any of us. The cost, however, is not borne by them alone. Ultimately, it is borne by all of us –- North and South, rich and poor, men and women of all races and religions.

To build a harmonious and beautiful new world, we not only concern about our own human rights, but also need to extend our reach to a broader scale to care for others. We must understand whether we show respect to others and treat people with dignity, so that we can ignite the unique human spiritual power to urge the human society toward a positive cycle of mutual inspiration, where continuous progress can be made. And this is the only way by which the human society can become one big family, and communicate with hearts.

Unfortunately, for many years human kind has not learned to explore this spiritual power in depth and benefit from the respective influence; on the contrary, people get used to offending human dignity. Taking the indispensable water resources as an example, we would not realize the importance of water conservation unless a drought happens that forces people to face the essential of saving water for millions of people we may not know to meet their basic dignity to live.

If there is no sufficient water supply, people’s lives will be shortened and the work force will be lost. Crops without proper irrigation lead to more people’s malnutrition. The competition for water resources can even lead to violent confrontations. We may not know the rational behind things like water conservation would accompany such complication. But from the viewpoint of the butterfly effect, every trivial thing we do could be beneficial to those people who have not enjoyed the basic human rights they entitled to. Similarly, if everybody does so, we are sure that there will be somebody in a certain corner of the world also working on defending human rights for us.

Yue-Fang Chung, AWC Taiwan, Member

Butterfly effect: The wing flapping of a butterfly in Beijing would slightly change the surrounding atmospheric pressure. This slight change will then change the atmospheric pressure of the neighboring area. This ripple of atmospheric pressure change will reach Chicago one month later to cause raining. In a system, a little turbulence can be amplified exponentially. That is, the turbulence can be four time the turbulence one second later, and then there will be eight times, sixteen times, etc. As time goes by, the effect of the turbulence to the system will become unpredictable.