Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 8th December 2008

Human rights are under pressure because of the many violations and the limited progress in some countries in observing the principles of the human rights declaration. Although human rights are binding obligations, there is still a large gap between the vision and the reality.

Human rights are under pressure and the situation today, 60 years after the Universal Declaration on Human Right was adopted by the United Nations, shows less cause for celebration that when the declaration’s 50th anniversary was celebrated, Lars Normann Jørgensen of Amnesty International in Denmark told a debate meeting on torture and human rights hosted by Politiken on 8th December.

There are still very many violations of fundamental rights and many countries have not made much progress in observing the principles of the human rights declaration.

The various activities involved in the war on terror have drawn the western world into open conflict with the conventions - not least in connection with the convention against torture and the right to a fair legal process. And Denmark is also undermining human rights: Denmark’s participation in the US-led coalition is a de facto moral support of the methods - including torture - used by the US in the conflict.

While agreeing that the declaration’s 60th anniversary is perhaps less auspicious than a decade ago because human rights are under pressure today, Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, noted that numerous human rights agreements have been adopted locally or regionally in the world.

“The human rights declaration is a binding obligation, but there is a huge implementation gap between the visions behind the declaration and the reality of today,” Nowak said.

He added that poverty is one of the largest violations of human rights, with the poorest of the poor suffering most. Billions of people have no access to education, justice or medical treatment. “We in the north are responsible for this situation,” he said.

Nowak said he is active in trying to get a world court on human rights set up, where victims - or, rather, survivors - of torture can receive justice and be assured of rehabilitation.

Nowak and his work formed the subject of a new documentary film by Danish filmmaker Jørgen Flindt Pedersen, screened especially for the meeting.

While the Nowak’s unannounced inspections of jails and other places of detention, as well as visits to justice or other relevant ministries, his visits must be agreed in advance by the country’s authorities.

But the visits reveal not only torture and the instruments of torture at jails, but also the victims and their fate - a moving experience that Nowak agreed is difficult to shake off and that forms part of his reports.