“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
- United Nations, Charter, 1945
All human beings are born free and entitled to live with honour, dignity and all the basic rights and freedoms. These basic rights are called human rights, which demand recognition and respect for the inherent dignity to ensure that everyone gets protection against abuses. These rights give humans the opportunities they need to realise their full potential and live without discrimination.
Violating these rights is akin to treating people as if they are not human beings.
Article 14 of the Constitution explicitly lays down that “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”. Article 21 is the heart and soul of our Constitution. It guarantees that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.
The human rights, as they are known today, have existed in India since ancient times. The principles related to human rights are laid out well in the Hindu religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, Vedas and Artha Shastra. They also find mention in the principles of Buddhism and Jainism.
Human rights belong to everyone, regardless of nationality, sexuality, gender, race, religion and age.
The modern human rights have their foundation in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly. They have been integrated with national laws and international treaties over a period of time.
The Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689), the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many human rights documents.
While talking about equality before the law and equal protection of law of all persons, the responsibility of the ruler (the government) is to treat everybody equally and give them equal protection of the law.
Violation of equal rights forces people to approach the court of law. Even as these rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, people belonging to downtrodden sections of the society go to sleep without food at night. Are they getting equal protection of the law? Are they treated equally like others? They have no means to approach the High Court or the Supreme Court. Hence, it is the responsibility of the society, especially the conscious citizens, to stand by them and ensure that their constitutional rights are protected.
There are situations when the rights of protection of life and personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 are violated.
Attempts were made to suppress human rights during the Emergency in 1975. There was an intent to murder democracy, leading to agitations across the country such as Sampoorna Kranthi movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan. Some people had advised the then Prime Minister to keep the judiciary under check to ensure that all control and power remained in the hand of the government.
It is unfortunate that the then Prime Minister had tried to control the judiciary by allowing a junior judge such as A.N. Ray to supersede three brilliant judges of the Supreme Court —Justice Shelat, Justice Grover and Justice Hegde. This incident had infuriated advocates across the country, forced them to take to the streets and question the government. They said in one voice that the honour and dignity of the judiciary must be upheld if its independence was to be maintained.
Undermining the independence of the judiciary means violation of the rights of the citizens. I had the privilege of leading the lawyers’ agitation in Odisha (then Orissa) on behalf of the High Court Bar Association.
The dark days of Emergency saw suspension of Article 14, Article 19, Article 21 and others. Basic human rights were suppressed. I feel protection of human rights is a sacred duty of every citizen of the country.
During the Mahabharata war, Arjuna was reluctant when Lord Sri Krishna asked him to fight against the Kauravas, his family members including Pitamaha Bhishma, Guru Dronacharya, and Duryodhana, Dussashan and others.
Lord Krishna replied, “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bharata. Abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham. Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkrutam. Dharma samsthapa nardhaya sambavami yuge yuge.”
You have to protect the dharma to ensure that human rights are protected. These human rights emanated from dharma. Lord Sri Krishna explained Arjuna that the oppressors and sinners have no regard for dharma, law and human rights, which made the latter understand his duty to fight against the Kauravas.
Human rights must be protected at any cost, and it cannot be done till the society is not conscious enough to extend the hand of solidarity for the cause.
When it comes to wars between countries, many innocent people get killed. Wars leave a trail of destruction of properties and loss of human life. In the aftermath of the World Wars, there was brutal suppression of human rights, global economy was crippled, leading to unimaginable misery. We are proud of our heritage as a thriving democracy, which has been playing a leading role to ensure global peace.
India has refused to take sides of warring nations. It has been pursuing an independent foreign policy, despite pressures by the big powers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has articulated on the world stage for peaceful negotiations between the warring sides and his statement —”This is not an era of war. Let us talk peace”— was welcomed by the world leaders, who concurred with the idea of resolving issues through peaceful negotiations. Ultimately, one can only hope that better sense prevails between the two sides and that they come to the negotiation table to end the war.
The world knows that war brings only disaster and human rights get trampled. I sincerely hope and wish that the society fights for the protection of human rights to ensure the well-being of the mankind.
(The author is the Governor of Andhra Pradesh)
