On the 70^th International Human Rights Day, The World Sikh News commits to highlight human rights, civil rights and fundamental rights of all beleaguered communities, peoples and nations.

Seventy years ago, the international community in its wisdom gave unto itself a Declaration of the Rights of Man, called the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, with the avowed purpose of unburdening the climate of hate and war that was paramount in those times.

Today, on the 70^th International Human Rights Day, the same rights so appropriately codified and theoretically acceptable to all humankind are under threat by the very governments and their leaders who accepted and ratified these rights.

In less than a century, the fundamental rights of individuals, the collective communal rights of communities, nations, regional identities, aboriginals, migrants, minorities, women and children are being trampled with impunity which puts the era before the UN Declaration in 1948 to shame.

“In 2048 –at the turn of the century of the UN Declaration for Human Rights, WSN predicts that Sikhs will be at the forefront fulfilling their duty to humanity! ”

The last decade has seen a far worse rise in large scale crimes against humanity in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.  The most powerful country on planet earth –the United States of America has proffered a new terminology of hate to the world and this has been lapped up by many advanced European democracies like France and Scandinavian countries like Denmark. France does not like anything religious and Denmark wants to throw off migrants to an uninhabited island.

All the political and military might of the world combined together has not been able to make the Nobel Peace Prize winner Ang San Sui Kyi wink an eyelid and accept that her country and her military masters are conducting the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya Muslims.  It is shocking, surprising and distressing that the Rohingya Muslims are being thrown off like cattle between one country and another and the UN takes no practical steps to take care of these stateless residents of this heartless world.

“To­day, in India, nearly one-third of the coun­try is dy­ing for food rights, women are strug­gling to live their lives with­out re­pres­sion and op­pres­sion from men. Im­punity to security forces is the norm. De­spite tall claims at UN meets, tor­ture is ram­pant. ”

Democratically elected dictators in the biggest and largest democracies of the world are crushing democratic norms. Human rights defenders and media persons are under attack more than ever before.  Fear is the new weapon. Silence is the new methodology of endorsement –from lynching to building of fear psychosis on the  Ram Mandir issue to putting a price on the head of anyone who questions any policy of the government.

71 years ago India became a separate country. 70 years ago, India, like other countries adopted the UN Declaration for Human Rights. Today, nearly one-third of the country is dying for food rights, women are struggling to live their lives without repression and oppression from men and children are between the devil and deep sea of having child rights and no food or having no rights but a little food in the belly.  Impunity to police, paramilitary and military is the norm. The judicial system is overburdened with work to which there seems no respite. Despite tall claims at UN meets, torture is rampant.

Sikhs do not see closure through justice for the pain and agony of 1984.  The Punjabi language is under threat from the rulers of Punjab itself. Name calling the Sikhs in India does not seem to end. The right to self-determination of the Sikhs and Punjabis is construed as a law and order problem.

The Dalits in India are reminded time and again that they are not supposed to raise their voice for rights. Shamelessly, in the last five years, the cow was more revered than this section of humanity.

The United Nations is impotent to enforce the 1948 UN Security Council resolution to resolve the issue of the rights of the people of Kashmir through plebiscite, then desired by both India and Pakistan and endorsed by the UN.

The leadership of the Nagas may have entered into a secret agreement between them and India, but their rights as Naga people are still awaiting a solution. The Manipuris still face the bayonet and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and now they do not have Irom Chanu Sharmila.

The very citizenship of a large chunk of the people of Assam is under doubt as the right wing government at the state and centre forges ahead with the National Citizens Register to the detriment of the Muslim population.

State-sponsored and state-tolerated vigilantism is the new norm. The barking of the new media supported by the state does not leave any room for dissent. Any form of dissent –political, food of one’s choice, business of one’s choice, growing crop of one’s choice, living in a particular dwelling, following a religion, worshipping a God or Goddess –each one must follow the written and unwritten guidelines of the powers that be.

The civil liberties movement in India is dead. PUCL and PUDR are non-entities. Some semblance of dissent by lawyers, student activists and a tiny section of media keep the flag flying against many odds and those of them who raised their voice aloud are in prisons.

Both the Punjabs on either side of the Radcliffe line beckon the Sikhs from India and across the world. The small Sikh nation portends huge possibilities of peace in the geopolitics of the region if given a chance by the rabble rousing leaders who want to crush this right of the Sikh people.

Within Sikhdom, there is no active human rights movement. Sikh activists have yet to acknowledge that working for human rights means working for rights of people with whom one does not necessarily agree.  It must however be acknowledged that a handful of activists and lawyers have forced the agenda of the rights of Sikh political prisoners on the discussion table with the government.

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Working for rights of the Sikhs is part of the struggle but the Sikhs of the Ninth Master -Guru Tegh Bahadur need to think and reach beyond that too. Let us care, hope and pray for all whose rights are under threat from whoever, whatever and wherever.

This is by no means an exhaustive summary of the human rights situation of the world. It is only a bird’s eye view.

As we celebrate the 550 year celebrations of the First Master –Guru Nanak Sahib, Sikhs need to commit to reach out to more people and regions of the world and stand up for their rights, notwithstanding the climate of impunity, indifferent attitude and inefficiency of the United Nations.

In 2048 –at the turn of the century of the UN Declaration for Human Rights, WSN predicts that Sikhs will be at the forefront fulfilling their duty to humanity!