Huffingtonpost:
In his superb article ‘A Human Rights Wish-list for 2013’, Jack Healey encouraged us to chose our own wish-list. I have taken up that suggestion.
My 10-point wish-list is as follows:
1. Make ‘Freedom of Conscience’ a human right for all.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, often known as ‘freedom of religion or belief’ (FORB), is enshrined in Article 18 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet it is one of the most widely violated and yet most neglected human rights today. It suffers from the misperception that it is a right only for the ‘religious’, and yet it includes, and must include, protection for the right not to believe too. Christians are facing widespread persecution in many parts of the world, as events in Iran, Nigeria and Burma over Christmas have shown; but Bahai’s in Iran, Ahmadi Muslims in Indonesia and Pakistan, Shi’a Muslims in Indonesia, Uighur Muslims in China, Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists and other religious communities have experienced, religious intolerance affects people of all religions. Similarly, the imprisonment of atheists in Indonesia and Egypt demonstrate that Article 18 is relevant to non-religious people. A new report by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, called Freedom of Thought 2012: A Global Report on Discrimination Against Humanists, Atheists and the Non-religious, illustrates this much over-looked aspect. Article 18 is the most basic of human rights, because without freedom of thought, conscience or religion, what good are other freedoms? My hope is that Article 18 would be mainstreamed.
2. Speak up for each other.
Categories: Equal Rights, Europe, Human Rights, UK, United Nations
A great article indeed!!
I specially like the part ” speak up for each other “, I think TMT is already doing that.
Nice article, unfortunately the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do nothing for Islamic nations, because they have formulated their own version of it, the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights. So they can continue to persecute their religious minorities,(including Ahmediyyas declared as non-Muslims in most Islamic countries)
The 1990 “Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam” and the 1981 Universal Islamic Declaration
The CDHRI was supposed to “serve as a general guidance for Member States in the field of human rights” and its preamble states:
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community fully believes in the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights and infact an Ahmadi Muslim, Sir Zafrulla Khan, wrote a book to this effect.
He showed the parallels between the Quranic teachings and the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights:
Islam and Human Rights