Human Rights For Whom?

Today’s Jamaica Observer Cartoon shown to the right 

summed up suc­cinct­ly the modus Operandi of Jamaica’s Human Rights Organizations.

Anyone fol­low­ing my blogs will notice the dif­fer­ence in the way I char­ac­ter­ize them today.Generally I refer to them as crim­i­nal rights Organizations. I guess it required the satire of the car­toon­ist to bring me to actu­al­ly address them seri­ous­ly.The car­toon­ist used satire to show the dys­func­tion­al pri­or­i­ties of those agen­cies . There we see them run­ning to the defence of homo­sex­u­als and mur­der­ers (shat­tas) while the men­tal­ly hand­i­capped are total­ly ignored.Lets begin by look­ing at the role real human rights orga­ni­za­tions play in look­ing out for those who can­not speak for them­selves . One can­not overem­pha­size the need for inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tions to be on guard against gov­ern­men­tal oppres­sion of peo­ple the world over, the val­ue of the work they do in secur­ing the rights of dis­pos­sessed , dis­placed, and dis­en­fran­chised is incal­cu­la­ble, and invalu­able.The United Nations com­mis­sion on human rights cov­ers the gamut of human rights abus­es irre­spec­tive of geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion. Other small­er agen­cies also do their share of heavy lift­ing in address­ing the bur­geon­ing array of ways peo­ple are abused . Enough can­not be said about those agen­cies that ded­i­cate their time to look at abuse and high­light them in an effort to make our world a bet­ter place , not just for us but for gen­er­a­tions to come.Jamaica like every­where else , has it’s share of chal­lenges. This blog com­mends any indi­vid­ual , or agency that steps up to the plate to defend the cause of rights and jus­tice for those who have no voice.We must how­ev­er also look at the pri­or­i­ties of those who pur­port to take on those chal­lenges local­ly. We must ask whose inter­est do they serve, if pub­lic sen­ti­ment is any indi­ca­tor we can read­i­ly agree they are an abject fail­ure.Every years Jamaican police report over 1600 homi­cides . This does not take into account the numer­ous cas­es of shoot­ing vic­tims. Rapes, Arson where entire fam­i­lies are dis­placed, car­nal abuse, and a pletho­ra of oth­er seri­ous crimes that affect the lives of Jamaicans dai­ly.When homi­cides are looked at with­in the prism of the con­se­quences they wreck on soci­ety it is mind-bog­gling. The rip­ple effect on soci­ety can­not be denied in terms of trau­ma and down­ward drag on scarce resources of the state and Non gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions.In many cas­es the vic­tim killed is the sole bread-win­ner, in the form of a father ‚who hap­pens to be a cab dri­ver or some­one engaged in work try­ing to take care of their fam­i­lies. This leaves a des­ti­tute fam­i­ly that has no viable means of sup­port, in addi­tion to hav­ing to deal with the trau­ma of loos­ing a loved one vio­lent­ly and need­less­ly.This gives well-inten­tioned indi­vid­u­als and agen­cies a nev­er-end­ing list of indi­vid­u­als and groups to give sup­port to. In addi­tion any such rights groups have the gov­ern­ment of the day to scru­ti­nize, hold­ing their feet to the fire , mak­ing sure no one’s rights are vio­lat­ed. These are mon­u­men­tal tasks that needs the involve­ment of more of us.Those who are vic­tims of crime, deserve to be at the head of the line for help and sup­port. They deserve our sup­port and wher­ev­er pos­si­ble a hand-up in get­ting back on their feet.Conversely, those who choose to destroy the most pre­cious gift we have received from God , the gift of life, must be the last to be rep­re­sent­ed , and looked after. Even then, look­ing out for their rights must walk hand in hand, with a mix of reha­bil­i­ta­tive options , but a heavy dose of puni­tive sanc­tions.Why then does the rights groups in Jamaica choose to rep­re­sent the rights of crim­i­nals?Are we to con­clude there is not enough spot­light to be hogged if we ded­i­cate our efforts and atten­tion to the plight of the poor and dis­pos­sessed? Is it fair to argue there is more noto­ri­ety to be gained by attack­ing agents of the state, some of whom deserve the attack?Is it fair to ask whose inter­est is served by the ener­gies Jamaica’s rights groups expend in their defence of crim­i­nals? I will con­cede not all crimes are equal, not all crimes are pre-med­i­tat­ed, and as such , not all crimes deserve the same sanc­tion. Two guys involved in a fist fight , one punch­es the oth­er, he falls over hits his head on a stone and dies. This is a case of homi­cide, how­ev­er it was not pre-med­i­tat­ed, and as such does not war­rant the penal­ty of cap­i­tal mur­der. It how­ev­er does not pre­clude him from fac­ing the con­se­quences of manslaugh­ter since the act he was involved in (fist fight) was an ille­gal act ‚and could have led to some­thing more seri­ous, as it did . This crime is marked­ly dif­fer­ent from some­one who forms part of a group, or who is indi­vid­u­al­ly involved in pre­med­i­tat­ed crim­i­nal­i­ty. Murdering and com­mit­ing oth­er felonies as a way of life.When the two sce­nar­ios are eval­u­at­ed I could clear­ly see how some­one or an agency would argue on behalf of the guy who finds him­self in trou­ble with the law because he was involved in a fist fight.What I do not under­stand is , what is the ratio­nale for the defence of the mur­der­ing despots that destroy lives, and fam­i­lies?Why do they fudge num­bers , and plain lie, to defend known urban ter­ror­ists, and demo­nize cops?These are the ques­tions Jamaicans must ask them­selves before they jump on band­wag­ons, whose side are you on ?mike beck­les:have your say: