Human Rights Under Democracy
- Part 4 -

Dr. Koijam Manihar Singh *

One fear on our part is that our democratic institutions are becoming unresponsive to the lights and needs of the people and are therefore in danger of becoming unrepresentative symbols of representation. There have been many manifestations of this general feeling.

In recent times, when the people found that they could not obtain redress for their grievances through the usual process of approaching their representatives in Parliament or by seeking relief through the Executive, they have started moving the law courts to enforce the right guaranteed to them under the Constitution.

This is the real reason behind what has been called "resurgence of judicial activism". These developments show that the ordinary citizen of today is disenchanted with the democratic process. And such an attitude is dangerous for, historically, it is these feelings of repression that have formed the bedrock of violent revolutions.

It can be rightly said that democracy and protection of human right constitute the cornerstone of any developing society. Human rights is not merely a language of compassion, cooperation, consideration and communication in human affairs, it is the grammar of a civilised society to protect humankind with its dignity, equity, existence and non-exploitive social justice.

When incorporated in state system, human rights embrace within their ambit humanitarian impulses as could be seen in the edicts of Ashoka, Christian Order of Things, Concept of Social Relations as propounded by Confucius in China, Raja Ram Mohun Roy and Gandhiji in India, while championing the cause of removal of untouchability and restoration of dignity to the socially deprived people.

Thus journey of human rights is perennial and is linked to humankind. They are individual rights, collective rights, social and economic rights, political and religious rights, cultural and environmental rights, and rights to life of dignity etc.

In the words of Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, former President of India, "While there is adequate sensitivity at the higher echelons of civil and political society to matters relating to human rights, the State as a whole has not succeeded in making its lower rungs of functionaries equally sensitive to the issue. Equally important has been the initiative to train and sensitise public functionaries to respect the rights of citizens .

Human right and human duty are intermingled each other under democracy. Every right has a corresponding obligation or duty. Without duties there can be no rights.

A valid claim is both a right and a duty. If a society provides an individual with opportunities to feel happy and prosperous, it also imposes an obligation upon him that he should allow others the same opportunities of feeling happy and prosperous.

If I have the right to work and earn my living, it is my duty to recognise the same right in others and accede to them those conditions in which they can also enjoy their right to work and earn their living.

This is a simple but primary rule of democracy : Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you. I can enjoy my rights only if I respect the rights of others. My claim to rights comes from the fact that I share, with others, the pursuit of a common end. If I fail to contribute to that common end, that is the social good, it is for the State to see that I act as a moral unit of society.

As the State maintains and coordinates rights and helps to create that atmosphere in which man can seek to be himself at his best, it is, accordingly, the duty of every citizen to help the machinery of the State to realise its mission. This means that a citizen owes a duty to the State as organized in a government.

Present era is an era of protection of human rights. Never before in history has there been such recognition of the rights and duties of the ordinary citizens. In spite of the teachings of religions to the contrary, all societies in the past had been hierarchic in which a minority enjoyed privileges at the cost of the majority.

Race, colour and; sex had been the basis of discrimination within and among communities. The inequalities had been enhanced by the fact that, in the past there had been many regional civilizations but never one world civilization.

Different conceptions of human rights could, and sometimes did, subsist side by side and because of lack of communications, could even be unaware of one another. Today such a state of affairs is unimaginable.

Whatever happens in one corner of the globe has immediate repercussions on all other parts. There can, therefore, no longer be closed systems of divergent civilizations, nor divergent conceptions of human rights. Today, any charter on Human Rights has to be made out on a global scale.

The loftiness and grandeur of human rights is unique. Under the umbrella of human rights grows and flowers the mind of man, his mental horizons broaden, his health and happiness augments, his spirit feels satiated.

Human rights are the finest expressions of human soul, the very quintessence of human spirit, the very summum bonum of humanity, nay, they are as indispensable to man's life as water, air and other elements of nature.

Let there be no such endeavors as may tarnish the UN Charter on Human Rights, or jeopardize the basic ingredients of human rights like liberty, equality and fraternity.

Let there be the prevalence and protection of human rights in a world of democracy in spite of all odds and evens of time.

Concluded ....