THE ETHICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Justice S. Nainar Sundaram

Who are you? You are a human being. Who are your fellow beings ? They are also human beings. How did the question of acquiring rights for human beings and incurring obligations on their part arise. It is the mischief of the senses. To fulfil the urges of the senses, man became conscious of only himself. He became so and even today he is concerned more about himself and the satisfaction of his urges. He was not concerned about others. He would not mind hurting and harming his fellow human beings, for the satisfaction of his senses. He would not care to deny liberty to his fellow human being. He would not mind taking away the life of his fellow human beings. He may deny equality to his fellow human being. He may not care for the dignity of his fellow human being. It is all so because of his uncontrolled and unbridled senses which seek satisfaction.

Man became an animal because of these tendencies. Are they inherent in a man? Is it possible to eradicate them? No is the answer. Could they be controlled? Yes is the answer. That will be a different philosophy. Could they be self-controlled? Unpredictable is the answer. That was why and that is why, rights have been claimed by human beings for themselves against the fellow human beings, to control the animalistic tendencies. Rights getting conferred lead to obligations being incurred. In other words, you have a right which the other should not violate. The four corner stones of the ethics of human rights are - Life, Liberty, Equality and Dignity. Each human being must have these rights. The other human being must respect those rights and should not commit any act or omission to violate these rights. This is the mutuality of human rights.

Man left to himself will be prone to declare only rights for him; and he would not have an inclination to respect, honour and protect the rights of his fellow human being. I call it animalistic tendency. We can even call it an inherent tendency of a man. If man would respect, honour and protect the rights of his fellow human beings there need not be enactments and enactments for protection of human rights. That is how the system of conferment and protection of human rights came into existence. I will come to the question of self-analysis and the enlightenment that could come to a man after such self-analysis so that he will not even by his thoughts affect or offend the human rights of his fellow human beings.

Now, systems are the rule of the day. Every system has got a backing of a particular discipline which is embodied in a rule. You shall not commit theft. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not harm or hurt. You shall love the other human beings as yourself. All these may sound good Ethics. Yes, they are Ethics. But they have found expression in satutory Law. Many ideas have cropped up and they have come to stay in our system as part of the progress in life. The larger arena will be the governence by a body which we call the Government. The Governement is for people and certainly the people for the Government. Thus, any Government and its officials must function for the welfare of the people or the citizens of the country.

The citizens have rights or privileges to claim from the Government. They want a proper administration of the Government. They want civic amenities and social security from the Government. The Government collects taxes for providing these facilities to the citizens. The citizens must also live in such a manner that they don't abrogate and stultify the functions of the Government and its officials. Here again, we find the mutuality. Mutuality is the rhythm in every walk of life. We cannot be going on giving. We cannot be going on receiving. It is always a policy o give and take, take and give. This is so far as the system prevalent in the modern day world.

I have already noted that one human being must respect, honour and protect the rights of the other human beings. If there is a violation, the Law will intervene. When the Law intervenes you should not complain of harshness of the law. But one word of caution is the men who enforce the Law must be discriminate souls. They should not over-step their limits. If they over-step their limits, there again violation of human rights come into play. If a Police Officer, while taking a culprit into custody and keeping him in custody during the permissible time, hurts him and manhandles him, the culprit becomes a victim and the Police Officer becomes an aggressor. Then here again, the Law intervenes to protect the culprit, though he may be culpable by virtue of the commission of a crime. The punishing Authority differs from the Investigating Authority. The distinction is very portent and there cannot be over-stepping of the limit. Very many instances could be quoted on the question of violation of human rights. Multiplicity of instances may not bring enlightenment into mind; but realisation of the rights of the fellow human being must stand imbedded in man.

Now, we will go to how far a man could by his own self-control respect, honour and protect the rights of his fellow human beings. You are a man. The other one is also a man. He has got as much rights as you claim. You are a father. The other man will be a father. Can you harm his children? Vice versa, can the other man harm your children ? You can go on thinking on these lines. A mother, a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, a nephew, a niece, an uncle, an aunt and so on. They are all either yourself or with whom you claim affinity. You have a concern for them. You would not like them to be hurt. You would not like their rights to be taken away from them. You will be prone and anxious to protect their rights. If so, don't you think that the other fellow human beings will fullfil the character of one or the other of the enumerated persons? Will he also not have the same right and the same reaction? That is why the Ethics all over the world say every human being is a reflection of the Supreme force. What is in you is also in the other. From this angle also, you have to respect the fellow human beings. The Bible says "Love Thy neighbour as Thyself". The Gita says that the Lord is present in every human being. The Dharmapadha enjoins that you shall not hurt any human being.

From every angle, you find protection of the rights of the fellow human beings should happen. You claim your rights. At the same time allow the other human being to claim his rights. You have an obligation to respect his rights. He has also an obligation to respect your rights. There will be a smooth way of living the life given to you. It is very precious indeed. You will make up your mind not only to claim rights but also to respect the rights of others.

Life is to be lived. How do you live is the question. It is true one has to first live for himself. You need not insist that every human being must live for his fellow human beings. When you live for yourself, allow the other man also to live. One discipline is for your living, you should not take away the life, liberty, equality and dignity of the other man. You require them. The other man also requires them. All the Ethics be it Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam etc., say that every life and in particular the life of a man is very precious in the eye of the supreme force. Preservation of life is the motto behind every system. It is not to put away or destroy life systems are evolved. Social, economic and political systems are meant only towards the achevement of this end. The basis for living has been expressed in four aspects viz. life, liberty, equality and dignity.

We are conscious of the fact that we have completed 50 years of Independence. May I ask the question as to whether we have made progress. Progress is not to be measured by scales. It has got to be measured by the internal churning which in turn will exhibit itself externally one way or the other. There is, in my view, abundant evidence of progress so far as our country is concerned. We shall not belittle our own progress. We are a progressive society and we have made progress and we shall progress. If we understand the Ethics behind human rights, we will not commit any act which will violate the same.