Struggle for our lives; struggle for our rights

• Following is a speech made by United Federation of Labour President Swasthika Arulingam at the 75th Human Rights Day organised by unions and mass movements, held at the Colombo Public Library

Dear brothers and sisters, dear comrades and friends, 

This year we mark 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We mark this day not in celebration but in deep reflection on the state of human rights and the state of human dignity in Sri Lanka and across the globe. We are marking this Human Rights Day, during a time of deep economic crisis in Sri Lanka where starvation, unemployment and State brutality thrust on a people simmering under unbearable conditions of living has become the norm. 

Just a few weeks back a youth was murdered in a police station in Jaffna and a child was beaten to death in a State correction facility. This is not unusual for us in Sri Lanka since for the last 75 years our human rights have been in a state of crisis and in May, 2009, human rights died in the shores of Mullivaikkaal as the Government of Sri Lanka bombed thousands of Tamil people in the name of ending a war. 

We are marking Human Rights Day at a time when we are headed by an unelected Government and President and an impotent Parliament which neither has the power nor the political will to check the executive. Hence the IMF and international creditors dictate the way of life for us – privatisation, deregulation, financialisation, removing labour protections and the dismantling of the welfare state is touted as the solution for a crisis which was created by a global financial order which is designed to exploit governance vulnerabilities in countries such as ours. The fault is not ours. But we are made to pay the price with our lives. 

Today the world people stand shocked and watch in dismay as the Israeli Government bombs 

Gaza killing thousands of people including children and destroys the city beyond recognition. This horrendous mass murder is being aided and abetted by Governments in countries such as the USA and UK. 

People ask the question are human rights a sham? An empty promise? 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights came into being at a time where third world countries were coming out of the yoke of colonial rule. New independent States were coming to life, like Sri Lanka. UDHR was also a promise for a new world order which is equal and just to all people, and which will allow human life to thrive with dignity. 

Despite 75 years of this promise being broken many times over, we the people of Sri Lanka draw from the UDHR and remember that the UDHR recognises the duty to rebel against tyrannical rules such as one which we are under today. 

Therefore on this Human Rights Day we continue the struggle to fight for our lives… fight for a democratic economy, a just state structure, the right to live in a healthy environment and for a people’s centric global governance structure. 

Argalayata Jayaweva! Porattathirkku Vetri!