Power of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Sometimes, we activists forget the power of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). 

Eleanor Roosevelt was the UDHR architect and her reasoning was clear. She wanted less pain in the world and more rights for everyone.  Eleanor  knew what Albert Camus wrote that “there is a difference between those who count the lash and those who receive the lash.” She wanted to help the lash receivers.

Peter Benenson (founder of Amnesty International) added to the legacy of Eleanor by asking the normal citizen to create a bond with the lashed by writing letters and taking actions to help the oppressed. Benenson wanted activists to keep their contract with the oppressed with the same courage as the abased showed to a dictator. A genius move in 1961. In 1976, Jimmy Carter added human rights to the diplomacy of US foreign policy.

Activism is one thing here in the USA but a little different in most countries in the world. The common denominator of all is courage and consistency in the face of oppression. The human rights movement stays alive on the courage of folks who put their flesh against the gun barrel (as in Myanmar) and to suffer the torturer for days on end.  We know and feel the loss of thousands of “disappeared” never to be found again. Millions have been debased physically and just forgotten by most except for their families. The millions of the tortured suffer the rest of their life and become survivors.  Victories like those of Mandela or  Dr Martin Luther King, Jr are few but terribly important as symbols of hope for us who count the lash and those who receive the lash. 

Each nation has these brave citizens. A few win awards like the Nobel. Millions just suffer endlessly in stinking jails with little food or water as Navelnay does in Russia today. The loss of one who was stolen (a “disappeared”) remains quietly in the hearts of their loved ones. Few are ever mentioned again as time washes clean most of the memory. Even once political change comes, most nations do not like to look back. Seldom if ever, is accountability called for.  Almost like a  rule was written for the purpose of silencing the past. An important exception was the Reconciliation of South Africa led by Archbishop Tutu.

People and governments know millions have been tortured. Yet, I would bet that not over 50 have ever been convicted and served out a real sentence. Many Nazis got to the USA as well as the torturers from Latin American who enjoy the beaches of the American south. No problem, it seems. 

So rather than debate the 30 articles of the UDHR, the way I look at human rights is basic, it is what every parent wants for their child;  to grow to fullness;  school, a job, a doctor if hurt, and a regular bite to eat.  All of the rights in the UDHR are important but few read the UDHR and most have never seen it. If you have not read or seen it, please get a copy off the internet. 

Yet people live and die for the principles of the UDHR. The writing provides a spine to human rights goals.  A right demands a response and that is why Harry Truman ran away from the UDHR as soon as it was passed in 1948 in Paris.

My thought is to bring this document back into the discourse. Many have compared the Biden administration to that of Roosevelt. The UDHR came out of the Roosevelt era and needs another look by the international think tanks. Biden is interested in lowering the pain level of the world for each and every citizen. 

This is especially important now, after  Trump reenergized the dictators of the world like those in China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Russia. In contrast to Benenson, who lowered the pain level of the world: Trump raised it. His followers need to travel to these lands to discover the truth of my accusations.

Secretary Blinken speaks of having human rights as a major part of foreign policy. Usually human rights mean eliminating torture, executions both legal and illegal, disappearances (people stolen from the street and their homes), political imprisonment for the non -violent. I agree with all those of course. To me, with respect to that list, I would say human rights is what every mom and dad want for their children.

Human Rights in Terms of Biden

For those of us in the human rights movement in the time of Trump, the air left decency in diplomacy and reasonable standards for international behavior. The dictators became pals of the American government. Bad things happened. Uighers suffered. Jamal Khashoggi was chopped to death at the request of Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (MBS), leader of the Saudi nation. The hope for a two-state solution with security for all was mocked by Trump. Russia got a new defender and ally, namely the USA. Human rights were seldom raised. Very little attention was paid to Latin America or Africa except for provocation when bored. Some Latin American countries never even got an ambassador. 

As sure as mothers love their children, the nation woke up and dropped over 81 million votes on the Biden /Harris ticket. The new team looks and feels like America does, finally, and seem smart and ready to go. I can only speak for myself but water in a desert does beautiful things.

So far, Putin has been called a killer. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the Chinese about the ill treatment of Uighers and protection for Taiwan and Hong Kong. Netanuhu’s diplomacy was distanced from the hugs of old days. The CIA exposed that MBS really did call for the execution of Jamal. On the downside, Egypt with tons of political prisoners was given a deal, to my chagrin. Egypt and Turkey, who also has tons of innocent prisoners need a firmer grip from Mr. Blinken.

Biden has spoken with a clear voice for human rights. It’s a great start for human rights which has clearly moved on to the agenda. Blinken is in step and the world will be a little safer and a little kinder now.

 The gap that needs immediate attention by Biden and Blinken is the raging and mean famine in Yemen. Since the USA has been a backer of that war for 5 years, we owe it to the Yemeni to use our drones to deliver food and water and medicines. POTUS has been clear re the war in Yemen. We are or have gotten out. But just walking away is another blow to the Yemeni people. Yes, Iran is a supplier of guns to the Houthis. This famine needs the attention of Mr. Blinken and his staff. We rebuilt Europe after it was destroyed by our enemy, the least we can do is help a nation we never should have gone to war with.

We human rights folks will keep up our clamor for a single standard for all nations and we will continue to criticize as we see fit. But make no mistake there is a big player again in the ring of diplomacy and I for one wish them love, truth and congratulations. It is a great entry for human rights.

Yemen in 2021

The war in Yemen still bothers me a lot. I was one of the few consistent bloggers that started with it and stay with it. Wish I was wrong.

The American people had no idea the war was on and off. President Obama took us to war and then trump supported it for his buddy the butcher of Saudi Arabia.

Let us start with a few facts. It was a civil war against a corrupt government. Yemen is the poorest nation in the Arab world. They were bombed while praying, marriages, funerals, and shopping. Those planes were fueled by American fly boys and intelligence was given the Saudis government as well as those refueling planes. The minority group who toppled the government were the Houthis, a shite tribe now that controls three fourth of the nation.

They are aided by Iran. ISIS still roams parts of Yemen as does Al(sp?). those folks are chased around Yemen as well.

The Saudi government has been joined for 5 years in this effort by United Arab Republic (UAE) and USA. Three of the richest nations on earth battling this san filled land for 5 years. And lost ground the whole time. Yemen became the “Vietnam” of the Saudi Government and UAE. Bombing hurt the government doing the bombing once again.

It is rumored that President Obama did this war because of his agreement with Iran re nuclear power and its uses. It was like a left-handed compliment and di it in such a way as no one noticed in the American public. The left usually hot to trot e bad wars chilled. The right just loves the Saudis government and so when trump won, he went over and literally danced with the butcher MBS. So, the war continued unabated. Famine and cholera and all kinds of diseases starting killing over 100,000 people. The non-governmental agencies (NGO” S) tried to help till Scy Pompeo officially called the Houthis a “terrorists and real bad guys right before he left office so 

The aid groups could not deliver food stuffs and medicines to the people of Yemen. That the naming the Houthis as “terrorists, they no longer could get the help of the NGO’s and were cut off from outside help.

As soon as President Biden came into office, he called for a shilling relationship with Saudi Arabia and its killer of journalists and women imprisonments for driving a car. The President gave him a pass because of some deep dark secrets that the USA and they exchange.  The relationship with Saudi Arabia goes back to FDR in 1944.

Presently all the very good NGOs are trying to deliver enough water and food and medicines to stop the terrible carnage.  You might think of helping. My thought is this……. Congress needs to declare wars like this one. At least then, the American people know what they are paying for and want to or not.

President's Irishness

Matt Visor, a journalist for the Washington Post, wrote a column on President Biden’s “Irishness” (WPost 3/18/21 p a14) that got my attention. A nicely written item but not very deep, sort of the usual things people say about the Irish. I will do my best to add some facts and history to the Irish of Scranton in President Biden’s time.

I got to know then Senator Biden when I was director of Amnesty International. Quite often I was in front of him in Congress re human rights situations and also we shared quite a few short but nice moments on train rides where I learned that he liked the Amnesty music tours I was doing because of our music choices, namely U2 and Bruce Springsteen.

My intent is to supplement Visor’s article with some depth. I was raised very Irish. Like the Biden family, my grandparents were Gaelic speakers from Mayo who lived in Scranton. The men were miners. Our house was a company house for $8 a month in a small place across from the mine called Grassy. The men came home at night covered with soot and grime. Life was hard and the mine owners refused to provide safety measures. My Mom was a first grade school teacher before she had 11 of us. My Dad started in the mines at 14 but left the mines for steel in Pittsburgh after he and my Mom married. Somehow we were always going and coming from Scranton until the final straw of the death of Uncle Tony McHugh in the mine. The Gaughan family (my mother’s side) still live in and around Scranton but the younger ones left for white collar work and prospered. In the early days of my Mom and Dad’s upbringing, times were rough for the Irish who spoke Gaelic. Gaelic speakers, who were from the west of Ireland, practiced a Catholicism that was more mystical than other Irish Catholics. St Patrick built the faith with the Druids, not against them. My Mom would speak of leprechauns and banshees and an itchy hand meant money was coming and a bird in the chimney had another message. This flavor of the faith bothered Oliver Cromwell who said to “Conemara or hell with these people.” Still, in the west of Ireland the people held onto their faith with serious determination and resolve. But my Mom’s faith was also, as I think was all the Gaughans, of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount that spoke of kindness to the widows, the poor and the lost and humility was part of the texture of their faith.

The long fight between the Irish and English was in the blood of both nations. The famine struck Mayo and the west of Ireland like a large lawnmower killing the potato crop year after year. Upon arrival in the US, a majority of those coming from Mayo ended up in Scranton for jobs in the mines. This became a war, not with the English, but with the major coal corporations in NYC who controlled the coal mines of eastern Pennsylvania, and who excelled in not providing safety and wages for the miners. In order to get control of the unions and to avoid the continuing and forgotten need to provide safety for the miners, the corporations in NYC sent in the Pinkertons to create a myth called the Molly Maguires and dropped it on the miners in the lower part of the coal reserves around the Lehigh Valley. The Molly Maguire conspiracy invented by the Pinkertons alleged enough murder, arson and insurrection to get 20 innocent Irishmen executed. The victims were mostly Gaelic speakers who were seen as the left wing of the unions because they had the poorer and rougher jobs due to their inability to speak English

Thus when we speak of Biden’s Irishness, it is important to add to the history of such a leader. His faith is not just the faith of many American born Irish folks. It is deeper than that, I think. It includes my mom’s memory and thought and a history of serious bigotry. That kind of upbringing adds steel to the back and focus to the mind. The sweetness of kindness is in this mix. I suspect President Biden comes from this historical past. I think it is closer to him and his history than the article in the Washington Post. With the memory of 20 federal executions backed by the NY Times, combined with bad safety in the mines, the soft side of Catholicism and British oppression with a famine that wiped out one fifth of our people……The President is a gentleman but he will act with a sense of history of his people and our experiences.

The real Molly Magurie was rumored to wake her children up each day with this line “awake, awake, what dictator should we bring down today?”

Jamal Khashoggi

In the Washington Post, Fred Ryan wrote an insightful and powerful op ed re justice and the murder Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul. Mohammed bin Salman (MSB) clearly ordered this execution and thus turned an embassy into a butcher shop. Our new President promised justice on this issue. The world awaited that decision. Human rights, long neglected by the former administration, was to rise to its former importance in foreign policy. But for justice for Jamal, that will have to wait. It looks like MSB is clear but not clean of this murder. 

Something “real important” re the relationship with the Saudi nation forbids justice for Jamal. I guess it is some deep secret we are not supposed to know. MSB sent the team to kill Jamal. But underlings will suffer, but not MSB. 

Human rights need a boast after its neglect by Trump and Pompeo. They loved dictators and that interest scared the world. This was a chance: show the world a new hope. Even MSB gets it in the ear like the rest of us. But no such thing happened to MSB. 

I would add to Mr. Ryan’s op ed that MSB is also responsible for its war on Yemen for five years now, aided by the super wealthy nations of the United Arab Republic and United States. Let me quote the Post again today “The conflict (in Yemen) has killed about 130,000 citizens, spawned the world’s largest humanitarian disaster and reversed development by 20 years, according to the United Nations.” 

That civil war in Yemen is the “Vietnam” of the Saudi government led by MSB. 

Justice delayed is justice denied. MSB is responsible for both the death of Jamal and the deaths of so many in Yemen. Human rights needs to find a clear leader in government to support human rights. My hope is Joe Biden.