A brutalized society

(ES)

Each fundamental right is an achievement.

As we are losing rights or allowing others to lose or not to observe them, we are moving toward the brutalization of society as a whole.

If civil life is governed by civil law which regulates our relations with our fellows as individuals within a society and with the State, and only for being members of the human family we have universal human rights, the question is clear:

The people whose rights have been ridden roughshod for over a century, abandoned, forgotten, held hostages by an armed conflict that endures thanks to human greed, have they ceased to be civilians?, have they ceased to be human beings?

If the West is not able to see even an iota of humanity in the people of Congo in order to commit itself to the advocacy of their fundamental rights, is probably their greed has dehumanized women and girls raped, the millions of victims of genocide, children forced to work in extremely hazardous conditions, orphans, malnourished children, mutilated persons, abducted by the militias, women and girls turned into sex slaves, inhabitants of looted villages, displaced persons fleeing the conflict, and in general, the millions of innocent victims of the plundering of Congo.

To the eyes of the victims, it is likely that those who have lost the human condition are the inhabitants of the West, which after more than a hundred years staring at the suffering of a people, have not been able to react to stop categorically such situation.

Extreme violence, absolute poverty, injustice and lack of peace, both for the sufferer and for those who stare in the distance without doing anything to avoid them, brutalize us all. We become less civil and less humans to the extent that we move away from the whereas in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
 
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
 
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
 
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
 
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
 
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
 
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
 
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

.

Stolen stories

A family stands outside their makeshift tent in BadBado camp in Mogadishu, Somalia
© Kate Holt/IRIN

(ES)

We all have a story to tell: our own history.

We share it with our friends and our relatives. When we suffer, we seek  consolation of someone close. And in the happy times, we expect to share them with those around us. A succession of moments, happy and not so happy, that make up our lives.
Even the individual history of each one of the millions of people living in absolute poverty is a succession of shared moments, of solace, pains and joys, in short, the story of a life.

And so is the history of peoples. A history that lasts generations and speaks of times of prosperity and times of decline. Of wars and peace. Of justice and injustice. With the only difference that the history of peoples is written by the rulers through the media, while the personal history is written by each individual.

No one can steal our own personal history. Perhaps the only thing that truly belongs to us.
However, there are peoples whose history barely appears in the media.

Forgotten stories of hunger, of misery, of death, of rapes, of slavery, of evictions, or of exploitation. Only appearing on covers when they reach unimagined levels of cruelty.

And what is the history of a people but the history of their peoples?

Women and girls who hide their faces in shame for having been raped. Their silent scream of rage and pain due to the impunity enjoyed by their attackers.
Mothers and fathers who make every possible effort to care for their malnourished children, mourning their deaths and leaving their fates to Divine Providence.
Children who are exploited, sometimes even enslaved, who dream of going to school, leaving behind a past of work, and prepare themselves for a better future.
Families evicted from their land, without roots and without means of livelihood.
Entire communities fleeing armed conflict, traveling hundreds of miles to refugee camps where thousands of displaced people are crowded together.

Millions of helpless human beings with a story to tell of which we know very little, except that they also need solace and to share their meager joys.

Tell their stolen stories, break the silence and get them out of oblivion is perhaps the best way to console them and make them feel connected to the world around them, that somehow has contributed to their history and has an inescapable responsibility to change their fates. For if a people can not tell their stories will be doomed to oblivion and extinction.

.