Human Rights

When the Maguindanao massacre happened November last year, I was then in General Santos City giving a retreat to the students of Notre Dame, Tulunan. The brutal news brought unspeakable sorrow to them. Genalyn Mangudadatu was their neighbor. Sr. Evelyn, the Dominican Sister who accompanied them, was shocked because she personally knew some of those victims. The students themselves were afraid of their safety on their return home. A greater grief was felt by the members of the families of the victims who lost their loved ones senselessly.

Obviously it was human rights violation in great proportions. It was sensational because it had a political color. Moreover the atrocities were committed against lawyers and journalists. Other human rights violations often noticed by media are enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests or extra-judicial killings. When these abuses are committed by police or the military, leftist groups denounce them and even stage rallies. I thought that questions about human rights is an exclusive language of left-leaning groups. But I was wrong.

The eye-opener came from the International Human Rights Education Conference: Promoting Human Rights Consciousness in Youth Development which I attended on 12-15, November 2010 at the Diamond Hotel along Apitong and Escario Streets, Cebu City. It was a joint undertaking sponsored by the Don Bosco Jugend Dritte Welt, the Salesian Philippine South Province and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. The participants came from Europe and Asian countries including government agencies that promote youth development, non-government organizations and religious groups.

The Conference gave me a much wider understanding on what human rights is all about. Its basic principle is respect for each individual as a person. Beyond the sensational violations shamelessly perpetrated, human rights has a wider concern that extends to many forms of marginalization and exploitations committed against children, young people, women, refugees, the sick, the uneducated, orphans or the migrants. In truth, there are many human rights abuses committed in silence by voiceless members of society. To this effect, the greatest historical milestone with respect to Human Rights was on December 10, 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” in Paris as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. It set out, for the first time, the fundamental human rights to be universally protected. It listed 30 rights to which everyone, irrespective of language, race or color, is entitled. Here is an abridged version of the Declaration:

1. All human beings are born free and equal.

2. Everyone is entitled to the same rights without discrimination of any kind.

3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.

5. No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

7. Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection of the law.

8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy for acts of violating his fundamental rights.

9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exiled.

10. Everyone has the right to a fair trial and public hearing.

11. Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

12. Everyone has the right to privacy, family or home.

13. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and to leave and return to one's country.

14. Everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution.

15. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

16. Men and women of full age have the right to marry and to found a family.

17. Everyone has the right to own property.

18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

20. Everyone has the right to peaceful assembly and association.

21. Everyone has the right to take part in government of one's country.

22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security.

23. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure.

25. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.

26. Everyone has the right to education.

27. Everyone has the right to protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which these rights can be realized fully.

29. Each one’s rights and freedoms is subject to limitations of the rights and freedoms of others and of the general welfare in a democratic society.

30. No one shall destroy the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration.

These Human Rights are necessary for creating a more just and humane world. Educating ourselves on them make us more responsible as persons having duties towards others. In the end, rights stem from the biblical principle that “each one is created in the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1: 26). Hence it challenges us not to be self-centered, aggressive individuals but as a contributing member of the society willing to give and take from the community. Human Rights, seen from this perspective, should be everybody’s concern.

Viva Christo Rey

In the 1920’s, Mexico was under the rule of an anti-clerical and anti-catholic President Plutarco Calles. He began to fiercely persecute the Church of Mexico enforcing particularly the 1917 Constitution implementing the so-called “Calles Law.” This law imposes specific penalties for priests. For example, priests who criticize the government are given 5 years imprisonment; or wearing the soutana or clerical habit outside the churches will have P500 penalty. He closed down many churches and persecuted or threatened priests even killing many of them such that many were forced to go “underground.”

Fr. Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest, lived in such circumstances.

He celebrated mass clandestinely and ministered the sacraments “underground” because Catholicism has been outlawed. It was a crime to be a Christian and to practice the faith. He even had many disguises and had to invent a nickname to avoid the authorities. Because of such “secret activities” he was under surveillance. He was finally given a false charge of assassination attempt of Ex-president Alvaro Obregon so that he could be arrested. On November 13, 1927 President Calles gave orders to have Fr. Miguel executed. His death sentence was made public. He was photographed and newspapers throughout the country carried them on front pages. He was to die on firing squad in the morning of November 23, 1927.

            Before the firing squad, Fr. Miguel blessed the soldiers, knelt and prayed silently. Refusing to be blindfolded, he faced his executioners with a crucifix on one hand and a rosary on the other with arms outstretched. When the shots were fired, he shouted at the top of his voice: Viva Christo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!)

            More than 60 years later, in 1988, Pope John Paul II visited Mexico and was welcomed by its President. On that occasion, he beatified this priest who died a martyr of his faith. He was not wrong in believing that Christ is the King of history.

            On this solemnity of Christ the King, the Gospel (Luke 23:35-43) presents to us Jesus as a different kind of king. He reigns not from a golden throne but from the cross. Like the “suffering servant” of Isaiah, he is despised, rejected and ridiculed. He is a crucified king. Jesus is a unique king with a unique kingdom: he wants to reign and rule in the hearts of all men and women of the world.

           

            As King, Jesus had 3 challenges for us:

1.      We surrender to His Rule – we allow Him to take control of our lives. He wants to be king and center of our hearts. A story is told about a mother who has a very naughty 7 year old boy. Exasperated by his mischievousness, she tells him to sit to scold him. She looks into his eyes as she tells him: “Carlo, do you know who is in-charge of this house?” And her son, without blinking an eye replies: “Yes mom, it’s Jesus. Not you!”

Yes, we know this fact. But because of our naughtiness as children of God, the fact of Jesus being “in-charge of our life” is still far from reality.

2.      We support Christ’s Message: we mirror Christ’s values. We replicate his examples. We serve and work to build a better world, a more compassionate and caring society.

3.      We stay connected with Him: as his loyal followers, we strive to imitate Christ especially His nobility of heart. A story is told about a farmer’s son who was often teased by his classmates because he was poor. To console him, his father told him the truth – that he was actually his adopted son. His real father was the king and when he is of age, he will bring him back to the palace and return him to the king. This filled the boy with amazement. He came out from that conversation changed! He still continued to do his ordinary chores but now with dignity and nobility as the son of a king. Even those who teased him noticed the difference. And when asked why, he said: “I may be poor, but there is royalty in my blood.”

            As we go home, we may continue doing our ordinary routine – at home, in school or at work. But as we live our ordinary lives, let us not forget that there is royalty in our blood. We are sons and daughters of God. We are heirs of the kingdom. We shall inherit the earth.