Comments on: Bloggers Unite for Human Rights

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:22:49 +0000

@myjoy Excellent, informative links. Thank you. The embassy’s responses to the (penetrating) questions were fascinating. As one of the few Cdns left who actually is active in organized religion (Anglican) it made me deeply grateful to live in a secular society. My own religion has had repeated (utterly misguided imho) goes at creating theocracies, all abysmal failures. I think of Calvin in Geneva and of course Cromwell in England.
Reading the Saudi’s take on UDHR, I found I got led down a blind alley a few times. It made a certain kind of sense, then I’d shake my head. For example, they note that 46 people were killed in the UK by murderers let out of jail. There’s a subtle implication that the state is thus guilty and responsible for those 46 tragic deaths. It’s not. The murderers are. Also, the document notes that democracy won’t be coming anytime soon to Saudi Arabia, as democracy is antithetical to their religious belief. In my mind, the only thing that makes faith genuine is that we get to *choose* it, not have the state dictate it.
All of this is not directly related to money but wow – that was an informative and personally thought-provoking rabbit hole! Thanks!

By: nancy

nancy — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:07:26 +0000

@jennifer I wonder if we’re inching towards coming full circle – we’re collectively finding ourselves exhausted by consumerism and seeking to ensure what we do consume is connected to our values. That in turn requires us to clarify our values, and we start to discover what we *really* want, and I dare say really wanted all along, was community.
@isabella I know since I’ve started getting ‘hyperlinked’ I’m emotionally feeling waaaay more connected to people “over there”. Sites like TED and KIVA and even less direct connections like reading bloggers who live around the world – cumulatively, I’m starting to really ‘feel’ inside the global village-ness of planet earth.
@myjoy Thanks again; I’ll have a look.

By: MyJoy

MyJoy — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:20:29 +0000

Nancy,

Here’s a link indicating the differences between the two systems/values of secular vs religious Human Rights.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=saudiarabia&ID=SP52903

The live link is no longer active but in case you think it the content is no longer valid, please remember what happened to 15 school girls in 2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1874471.stm

By: isabella mori

isabella mori — Sat, 17 May 2008 04:08:41 +0000

oh shoot, i missed that. (we need a calendar somewhere with all the blogging events …)

yes, it’s interesting. we have financial advisers but not ethics advisers. we save for our children’s comfortable university future and don’t even spend 1% of our GNP on saving children who lack the most essential necessities. we hunt around for the best mortgage and don’t spend 1/10 of that time hunting around for information on human rights violations.

why? i guess because what’s right under our noses (and specifically, under our very own noses, not yours or our neighbours’) is so much more immediate than “those” people “over there”.

i truly believe that one of the benefits of the internet is to give us the insight that “those” people are much closer than we think.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:56:29 +0000

Hi Nancy.

Thanks for the great post. Over the past few years I tried to let go of worry and focus putting time and money towards important things. I consider it to be a way of aligning my values with my most valuable resources. Although I earn less money than I did when I was in a “job” I am happier, more content and contributing more in my community. In some ways they feel like small steps yet I wonder what we could accomplish together if we all became more connected to things we believe in. Keep up the great work.

Jennifer

By: nancy

nancy — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:00:37 +0000

MyJoy – by all means, please do provide the links!
I will read it more in depth later, but immediately I was struck by the masculine language used. Was that just the translation, or is it indeed “fraternity” “his rights” etc.?

By: MyJoy

MyJoy — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:09:36 +0000

Nancy,

Since you mentioned honour killings and the UNDHR in the same post, I need to point out a fact that few people are aware of:

There are two Human Rights Charters in the world.

League of Arab States, Revised Arab Charter on Human Rights, entered into force March 15, 2008.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/loas2005.html?tr=y&auid=3337655

The law that is constantly referred to in the document above is based on Shariah within Islam, therefore it is not the secular common law which governs Human Rights in Canada and the rest of the world.

The UDHR in Article 18 allows people the *freedom* of religion, “includ[ing] freedom to change [their] religion”. The Arab Charter on Human Rights ignores this human right [does not even mention it] because under Shariah, changing one’s religion is punishable by death http://tinyurl.com/5622gh

If the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is universal, why did these Arab nations have to develop a *separate* document? The answer is very revealing. I have the links if you want to read them.

An interesting news item about UN High Commissioner for Human Rights endorsement and retraction of that endorsement:

UN rights chief clarifies stance on Arab charter
http://tinyurl.com/2vqkcg

I know if it doesn’t answer your question directly, but it does provide context as to why there is no simple solution.

MyJoy