Devon Dick
LAST WEEK, Dr. Ranjana Khanna, professor of literature at Duke University, spoke at the University of Warwick on human rights, dignity and justice.
She spoke from a feminist Marxist perspective. Her interest is in asylum seekers and she advocated that the struggle should be for justice instead of human rights, as she seems to fear that the International Declaration of Human Rights, which has the stamp of Eleanor Roosevelt all over it, will lead to the decimation of feminism.
However, her reliance on a Marxist perspective could lead to problems because Marx appeared to treat humans for their utilitarian value. In addition, Hegel with all his enlightenment was not critical of slavery. It is sad that persons are moving away from human rights and dignity and failing to see the correlation between human rights and justice.
In addition, the Government should be developing a Charter of Human Rights and allow discussions by Jamaicans, in towns and districts, to have a say in what they consider human rights.
IMPORTANT LEGISLATION
This development of the Charter of Rights is the most important legislation since the development of our Constitution and we need to get it right.
A human right is that which is universal for all under all circumstances.
It is different from political rights, consumer rights, cultural rights and citizens' rights. The main difference is that once the person is human in the Jamaican context then they have those rights. It is for the insane and irrational. It is for minorities and misfits. It is for babies too. The Oxford dictionary defines human right as "A right, which is believed to belong justifiably to every person." So ordinary Jamaicans are correct when they ask human rights organisations why they only focus on the rights of one set of persons. Human rights must be for all. Once there are caveats as is in the present charter then it is not a human right.
Here are some examples of human rights, i.e., the right to a name. The right to know who are one's parents and to have their names on your birth certificates. However, some can argue about what happens in the case of adoption and when the father is a rapist.
There is no right to asylum, but there can be a right to seek asylum. It is the sovereign state that decides based on their laws and regulations who will be granted asylum status. There should be a right to belong to the country of one's birth.
NO RIGHT TO DIE
There is no right to die, because it is a crime to commit suicide or euthanasia. There is no right to privacy.
The Government aided by the Opposition has just passed legislation allowing police to wiretap our phones. There is no human right to free speech because nobody can say anything they feel like about another person, except in Parliament. That is politicians' right not a human right.
There could be a right to water, to be considered innocent until proven guilty, right to be free from torture, a right to association and to believe.
There can also be a right to air, food and shelter, a right to redress from slander and to be free from sexual abuse and harassment.
The Charter of Human Rights must be for all Jamaicans under all circumstances and ought to be for sustaining life.
Rev. Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building'.
