The politics of human rights

freedom of speech quote


Rights, like laws are determined by the powerful to address problems they face or allow actions they prefer and apply “equally” to all. These also happen to be those unlikely to prevent them from acting as they wish.

We seem to have reached an era where we “harvest” the power of hard won rights to ensure unfettered freedoms for some, while the most dangerous instances of suppressed rights continue to go under the radar.

To me, Charlie Hebdo appeared to be among such instances before the attack. Its right to free speech was largely protected by both laws and culture. There was little question of it not being allowed to have its range of free speech and that speech (in my opinion) was squandered on making a point of being offensive in a juvenile manner. I had earlier promised to publish the offensive cartoons (without seeing them) – regardless of Indian laws on the matter as a statement against violent and extra-judicial suppression of free speech. However, after seeing them, I am forced to limit myself to writing, as I honestly couldn’t find anything funny about a star coming out of an ass – for example. My five year old son probably would (he even thinks farts are hilarious and breaks out laughing every time he hears one), but he doesn’t blog here yet. Regardless, there is no question that free speech includes the right to be offensive as well as juvenile.

On another level, I am reminded of two recent rape cases to hit media courts – but not courts of law till the state took suo moto action in one. Both cases saw women well versed with women’s rights and procedures and law after rape make no attempt to comply with the law by promptly undergoing medical tests or filing police cases. Both these women were unhesitatingly supported by more women’s rights activists, lawyers and journalists, and yet the only action taken was public leaks of accusations that resulted in media character assassination campaigns that protected the identity of the victim and unquestioningly published accusations as fact in the manner of press releases and left no room for the accused to even speak in their own favor.

What I find common to both instances is empowered entities having full knowledge of their rights and using them to maximum effect, exercising their freedoms with little responsibility beyond knowing own rights.

In a world where battered and bleeding women showing monumental courage walking into police stations to file rape charges get denied, in a world where states silence dissent or target communities on the basis of identity, to exercise rights in a manner that flaunts their potential to hurt innocents has a very predictable backlash that questions the necessity of the right to exist at all without limitations.

The more insults are heaped on religion for the sheer joy of insulting, the more are voices disturbed by indiscriminate hurt caused demanding a leash. The more women flaunt the unequal protections granted to protect the voiceless many women routinely denied justice, the more misogynists claim that women use the law to punish men and there are few cases of real justice. It also seems a bit farcical to me to claim massive trauma from a fleeting incident the victim did not attempt to avoid a repeat of, in a country where marital rape (often painful and repeated) is not just common but perfectly legal and the women continue to function, while living within easy reach of their rapists (who enjoy complete impunity) without any crippling trauma recognizable to outrage brigades. It is also a country where no particular effort is visible to insist on justice for cases that are not young professional women, low caste, outside cities (particularly Delhi) and so on. And cases are cherry picked to be sensitive to, with little uniformity of importance for cases across the spectrum the crime covers.

Similarly, we see targeting for race as wrong, so why is targeting for religion a right? Similarly, in France, why is banning of specific headgear only for Muslim women wrong, but ridiculing the religion right? It is hardly a secret that your free speech won’t extend to pedophilia – even if the pedophile is staunchly against child rape and insists on consent. Who went and decided that children don’t have the free speech to consent to sex? For that matter, why are violent rape porn or child rape porn CARTOONS illegal, when obviously no one got harmed in making them? Why is a person who praises the attack on Charlie Hebdo or defends it “supporting terrorism” as opposed to merely exercising free speech to express an opinion? Is it that there is someone sitting up there deciding what should offend us and what shouldn’t? Is it that this “righteous offense” is determined unilaterally by some entity that is no more accepting of “free speech” than a religious person, but remains unquestioned? Will we some day see a cartoon ridiculing someone who demands a ban on child rape porn cartoons? Yes these examples are “offensive” – we are discussing a right to offend, right?

This is not to say that exercising rights is wrong. It cannot be wrong and must never be leashed. However, there appears to be disproportionate utility or access to rights that is troubling.

For example, another way the Charlie Hebdo attack reminded me of rape was the motive for the crime being “provocation”.

There is a perpetual conservative response that blames the victim and recommends not offending. In effect, creating a right to be offended. On the other hand, the offense being social, the mere upholding of rights does little to prevent unjust and illegal retaliation. Those at risk must strike their own balance between continuing to enjoy their rightful freedoms and exercising caution. Regardless of who is at fault, it is the life of the victim that ends up devastated or lost altogether. There is bravery in bold stands, but there is nothing wrong with installing a phone app that allows you to instantly broadcast an SOS – for example.

Less discussed is the willingness to risk the safety of another. Just because a woman should have the right to travel in the city alone at all hours (and you would do it as a ringing statement of your freedom), would you ask a woman employee or relative to travel alone at night in …. Delhi – for example? I suspect the day is not far that publishers of content that can trigger a violent backlash will consider the potential risk of the editorial stance to employees or others tasked to protecting their lives.

While even empowered women are long used to compromising freedoms for safety and finding ways to exercise rights when they really matter rather than making risk a way of life regardless of importance of goal; the question of free speech remains stuck on absolutes that depend on the world comprehending specific ideals and respecting them. This is not a criticism of any choice – they are all our right and our safety is our right regardless.

There is also a need to include more voices on what we agree on as rights. While I believe that free speech and particularly the right to challenge entrenched bastions of authority (including government and religion) must be sacrosanct, my belief in democracy also forces me to accept that like any other participant in a democracy, I have no special right to have my specific preferences met and those contradicting it, overruled. I would rather prefer to dig in my heels on those saving lives and rights. I also believe it is more important that free speech or women’s rights (or indeed any other rights – women’s rights is just an example) not be trivialized in a manner that shakes popular support to crucial, life and death need. In my eyes, the need to prevent the suppression of expression of religious belief through attire trumps the need to allow juvenile, racist crudery that effectively deems large swathes of humanity as inferior. In my eyes, it is more important that Saudi Arabia flogging a blogger be fought – with international pressure, if need be; than the right to stereotype and demean people.

I don’t dispute that these are rights and can and will be exerted in a whole range of ways that will be as diverse as there are people. What I am suggesting is that uniformity and equality demands that we understand the variations in urgency and ensure basic rights and freedoms more equally before allowing free rein to a few disproportionate voices. Perhaps there is also a question of why some kinds of radicalization is unacceptable while other kinds of radicalization are free speech. After all, having a near cult following for juvenile insults to all sorts of diverse cultures cannot be all that different from seeing your religion as the only true one and discriminating against others. Except that the “holy book” of the “religion of offending as a means of creating enlightenment” is illustrated and easier to read.

That said, because Charlie Hebdo faced the attack, upholding its right to free speech now becomes paramount, as opposed to merely supporting the right to free speech of yet another kind of religious fundamentalism.

There is also a need for believers of all religions who do not support violence to not blame the actions that “provoked” the criticism by enacting the religion in a manner that brings it disrepute. What Islam (or Hinduism in India) “really” is becomes irrelevant if it manifests as a danger to others. Religious people need to recognize that it isn’t their humanitarian description getting insulted and avoid providing smokescreens to criminals by making it about themselves. Violent fanatics conducting cold, premeditated murders while yelling “Allah hu Akbar” or “Jai Shri Ram” are not a figment of the imagination of someone who likes to harass peaceful people. It is time to accept that there are people who enact your religion in ugly ways without your permission and either be okay with it or join the criticism of your own religion for not being enacted in a manner compatible with what you believe it “really” is. Jumping into the fray as victims without interpretation you endorse being criticized only implies that you will allow crimes in the name of your religion and are defending them. This helps no one. Least of all your religion.

What happened at the Charlie Hebdo premises was ugly, tragic and unwarranted – plain wrong. It was a crime and this article makes no attempt to justify it. The intent is only to dig in deeper to a level where we are able to find dialogue that goes beyond camps of “people like us” with “preferences like ours” to uphold. If it manages to engage people into deeper dialogue on what comprises free speech and attempts to find agreement across a wider range of humanity, perhaps over time we may find ways to strengthen and deepen the manifestation of rights – beyond merely being accepted as ideals – to a point where all are strengthened and conversations fuel enlightenment rather than provocation or outrage.



Founder at Aam Janata

5 thoughts on “The politics of human rights

  1. Your overwhelming queries till the 8th paragraph kept both of us (the writer and the reader) observing outside the box and questioning the predefined set of values that decide the right way to act. Then you moved to – how to prolong the crisis by behaving in a manner that wouldn’t be demeaning to people and their identity. The reward and punishment being the same. Act in a way that don’t make you a criminal. Please do it or you see you will be branded as criminals.
    People are divided by their hopes and desires. I have hope in this and you have hope in that. There is constant battle between us. You may offer hope to a hopeless and create another army to join this battle. Nothing you can do to stop the battle as long as you are fighting it.

    1. I am not recommending any leashing of rights. I am merely recommending a dialogue and more inclusion of perspectives. I have never had any problem with criticism of religion. But there are questions that need to be asked with regard to why some things are covered as rights while others are not and who decides. Ideally, the “decides” should be more of a consensus than prescription – if we are to hope for wider cooperation.

      1. Well, I know that you can not recommend that. That will be too politically wrong of you to do that. I am not concerned with that actually. Since you have faith in democratic system, the question of the ‘rights’ is relevant to you.
        As per the ideals of a democratic system, there must be a consensus for every decision. However ridiculous or stupid that decision be. But the decision is to be taken by the representative which is not a product of any kind of consensus, but is product of his own ability to create the consensus among masses. There is no such thing as consensus. It is something that you create, not something that you collectively arrive at. You can not arrive at anything, collectively.
        Since I have no faith in democratic system, I have nothing whatsoever to do with the ‘inadequacy of rights’. The rights that I have, I enjoy. The rights that I don’t have, including the so called ‘the right to express in public platform’ has its limitations and I have no problem with that. That is a social problem that if you express things in a certain manner, some idiot will get offended. Fine, then I keep mum. That doesn’t mean that I am suggesting you to keep mum. You go ahead and do what you feel like to and face the consequences. There are consequences in this world. Not those which are written in your books of penal code. The consequences that actually function in the world. Which depend on what kind of world we live in. World is not what you define as per your book of constitution or penal code.

  2. You confused me on the idea of free speech…even more..perhaps i still dont have a clue(or never ever had one) what freedom of speech is ..
    But i don’t agree to the idea that someone expressing his freedom of speech is “flaunting” it since the world is disparate. that too is blaming the victim for being ‘advantaged’

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