Challenge of keeping HR front and centre amidst economic crisis

Amnesty International (AI) which released its State of the World’s Human Rights Report for 2022/23 in Colombo on Tuesday hit the nail on the head by highlighting the double standards throughout the world on human rights that has led to plummeting HR records in many countries including Sri Lanka.  

The international human rights organisation noted that the robust response to the Ukrainian crisis in the West is in sharp contrast with a deplorable lack of meaningful action on plummeting rights in Afghanistan and intense crackdown on the right to protest in several South Asian countries including Sri Lanka.

Herein lies one of the main problems why imposing universal human rights standards is unrealistic and will always be met with cynicism by those countries labelled as the violators of human rights by another group of countries whose legacies do little to inspire confidence that the same set of rules will apply to all countries, whatever strategic or economic interests they hold on a global scale.

Sri Lanka has for over three decades faced serious allegations over its human rights record and rightly so. Gross abuses have been committed mainly by the State in putting down insurrections that have left thousands dead in the country. Sri Lanka also holds the dubious honour of being one of the countries with the highest number of missing persons on record. At least in the human rights violations context, Sri Lanka can tick all the boxes from extra judicial killings, to arbitrary arrests and detentions, crackdown on freedom of expression to many more. It is also true that only a negligible number of cases of rights violations have been investigated and the violators brought to book. This means many of the people responsible for gross human rights violations are roaming the streets as free men. All very problematic and certainly out of step in a world where protecting human rights is a growing priority.

In the latest AI report, the Sri Lankan Government faces allegations of cracking down on peaceful protestors, of excessive use of force, persecution of minorities, etc. These are allegations that have been levelled at successive Sri Lankan governments and will likely worsen as the country struggles to overcome its worst economic crisis since independence.

Human rights are among the first to be compromised in a country where for the majority of the population, getting the next meal on their table, having access to basic healthcare and education are the primary concerns. Right now, not only in Sri Lanka, as in many of the less economically powerful countries, human rights is a subject that is a luxury. Bertrand Russell, the well-known Welsh philosopher in his writings on ‘The Story of Western Philosophy’ stated, “The autocratic rebel, since he has enough to eat, must have other causes of discontent.” Right now, where a majority of Sri Lankans are concerned, they have too many other causes for discontent for human rights to be a priority.

This does not make human rights an unimportant issue but the challenge for organisations that work for the safeguarding of rights is to gain support from the public for their work. And while the work of organisations like AI and other groups that work to promote and raise awareness on human rights are important, the challenge for them is to keep human rights front and centre in a country ridden with economic woes. This more so among a populace where human rights are viewed with a measure of scepticism given the glaring double standards in the application of human rights globally.