In our Hamas-harassed and Israel-ideated year that is still h(a)unted by the Ukraine issue looming large on the Russian horizon, what hope for human rights, many would ask. Well, my submission is that human rights are like genuine people. When the going gets tough, these tough get going, right? So it is with the human rights. Hence these inalienable and natural rights define the very idea of being human(e).
I suppose, human rights are like concentric circles that are in a way self-sufficient, and yet they choose to intersect to form a new enriching 'design' of being human(e). What are these principles? They are autonomy, dignity, equality, fairness and respect, almost in an ascending order, so to say. In other words, human rights are the rights of both, the individual and the collective.
As an individual, my own autonomy and dignity must be respected both by me and the others if I want to, and hope to, believe in equality, fairness and respect, right? Respect for others, I would say, is rooted in respect for one's own self. A person who does respect herself, and her basic decent right to be(come), would be passive-aggressive, and would not respect others either, right?
In fact, even in daily lived life, one must learn to be kind to oneself as well. When one is kind to herself, she can respect others. If necessary, to stand up for oneself, one should be ready to distance oneself from people and situations hell-bent on demeaning and belittling one.
Yes, I do believe that like charity, hope for-n-of Human Rights, too, begins at home. When your fight with yourself is thus won, you can understand the wor(l)d's better! Hence to make our bitter era better, let us be better than the best within ourselves, and for ourselves. Thus would live long the human(e) rights, right?
Pratima@The Enlightenment Thinkers, Thomas Paine, William Godwin have long defined our human(e) rights. Time we start living them. Only then can the world be a family, right?
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