Human rights 365 days a year – and for all

In 1989, citizens of many Eastern European countries took to the streets to protest against the oppressive regimes that ruled them. They carried different banners, but there was one very simple slogan which repeated itself country by country: “Human Rights”. 

Jan Ja?ab is the Regional Representative for Europe in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Today, 13 of these countries are members of the EU, an organization which has identified human rights as a core part of its values and has equipped itself with a Charter of Fundamental Rights. On a broader regional level, those 25 years have seen remarkable progress in many areas of human rights, often through case law of the European Court of Human Rights and other bodies of the Council of Europe. All this is undoubtedly good news.

In the early 1980s, the first Director of the Human Rights Division at the UN, Theo van Boven, was “rewarded” for his courage and commitment for standing up for the rights of prisoners in Latin American military regimes, by being removed from office. Today, few people would deny that it is the role of a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and his or her office to speak for the victims of human rights abuses: it has become a key part of our responsibilities. That, too, is a sign of progress.

Every year, we celebrate Human Rights Day on 10 December, the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year, the theme of Human Rights Day is “Human Rights 365”. Every day should, in fact, be a Human Rights Day – that enjoyment of all human rights should be part of everyone’s everyday reality. In today’s EU, this may seem obvious because most people can enjoy most of their human rights most of the time. Even for those of us who did live under oppressive regimes, it becomes too easy to forget how precious (and unreachable) many human rights had seemed then. And the pain of others – those in various parts of the world who still risk arbitrary imprisonment or lack of access to clean water – is not always on the mind of those who take their own human rights for granted.

In Europe itself, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and 66 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the emancipatory narrative of human rights remains very much unfinished. Some people still cannot enjoy the full spectrum of human rights because they are marginalized or even forgotten by policy makers.

In some EU Member States, too many children are still being separated from their families and are languishing in old-style care institutions – and so are persons with physical, intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, older people or the homeless. Many of them remain among today’s “forgotten Europeans”. In some EU Member States there has been considerable progress in terms of inclusion of these persons in the community. But in others it has not really happened yet. In some States, austerity policies that have led to cuts in social services have brought about a real risk of backsliding on previous achievements.

In the area of LGBTI rights, genuine progress has been marked in many EU Member States, but it has been uneven and major differences among countries remain. Open racism has become less acceptable in European societies than it once was but many migrants, refugees and members of religious and ethnic minorities are still suffering from prejudice, discrimination and social exclusion. The harsh policing of migrants and minorities, including Roma, is a recurrent problem in some States, with too many instances of impunity for violations committed by police officers.

Some of the old challenges are making a dangerous comeback. We have even – in one EU Member State – seen attempts to intimidate and discredit “foreign-funded” civil society organizations that engage in human rights advocacy. And new challenges keep emerging.

To make “Human Rights 365” a reality for everyone, not just within the EU, will require a lot of commitment from to the principles of equality and dignity for all – commitment from the States, the UN, civil society and the broader public. As Theo van Boven has said, working for human rights is not easy; it is always a long and uphill struggle.