Article 28: Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Click here to watch a video on Article 28, The Right to A Fair and Free World
Great human rights activists have taught us the concept of indivisibility, and how connected we really are. Our freedom is connected to the freedom of another; no one can be free, if one man is in chains. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere,” Nelson Mandela once said, “Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.” Both these quotes indicate that one man cannot be free, if another man is not. That is not what freedom is.
The rights that were outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants us rights that are suppose to enhance our well-being, however, these rights cannot be materialized if they are not enforced by individual social and international actors. It is not enough to have moral guidelines and principles set out as to which rights we are entitled it, but a legally enforceable system needs to be created within each individual country that ensures the protection and materialization of these basic rights.
We all have a right to a fair and free world, but if your freedom is restricted and determined by other actors, then you are not free. The Tamils in Sri-Lanka are not free. In Sri-Lanka, policies have been enacted that do not guarantee the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in fact, it is the Sri-Lankan state Government who does not allow Tamils to enjoy their rights. In the past 28 days, we have seen how all the rights were violated by the Sri-Lankan Government; therefore, we can safely conclude that because these rights and freedoms are not protected, but rather violated by the Sri-Lankan state, the Tamils are denied a social and international order in where their rights are protected.
Credits:
Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada, Evelyn Kallen (2003)
Social Inequality and Social Injustice: A Human Rights Perspective, Evelyn Kallen (2004)
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