By Shulamith Koenig- Recipient of the 2003 UN Human Rights Award

I have been privileged for the last 17 years to be the Director of a United Nations, ECOSOC accredited NGO, PDHRE, The People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning (Formerly : people’s Decade for Human Rights Education), working both at the policy level with Member States and directly and indirectly with numerous civil society organization,  those advocating their specific issues within  the UN,  be it at the General Assembly, the various Councils, Agencies and Committees. If civil society is to be responsible to its overarching missions and be accountable to their constituencies, we must make an effort to understand and analyze the social accountability of the UN and take actions to enforce it.

. In my opinion the United Nations can be viewed virtually as a “club of nations” where often ever changing real, perceived and/or manipulated national, regional and global interests play a major role on how these “club” members make decisions, often to our bewilderment and distress. And yet we have no other and no better international institution to manage -vaguely-  and serve the continuously emerging urgencies that determine the future of humanity. These are the never ending concerns about peace; security; civil, .cultural, economic, political and social human rights; economic, social; human and societal development; and in general social economic justice. (It has been told that there were times when the Secretariat of the United Nations made courageous decisions and took actions without the consent of members of the “club”. If this courage is sustained with the new administration it can indeed increase the progress of social accountability at the UN.)   

The growing involvement of civil society -the intended beneficiaries of all that is being acted upon at the United Nations- is getting more and more involved in closing the gap of social accountability of the United Nations. However, these many compartmentalized advocacies often lack a frame of reference, making it “easy” for Member states to prioritize them at will within the power structure of the “give and take” in the “club”.  

Three “Ps” dominate the intergovernmental relations at the UN: Power, Politics and Participation. Unfortunately, Member States -their actions guided by the three “Ps”- often ignore in their decisions and actions the official commitments they have made and obligations they have undertaken in answering the call of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which speaks in its preamble of a world “free from fear and free from want”, recognizing that all human being are born equal in Dignity.

To achieve the vision and mission of the value related articulation in the UDHR, the UN gave  birth to various Covenants and Conventions, often referred to as Human Rights Instruments.  These instruments deliberate on the political, civil, and economic. social and cultural concerns of women, men youth and children of all nations; of all races, ethnic groups, minorities and  indigenous communities; of the old and young, the disabled and sick including intergenerational problems and more, to  enable all to belong in dignity in their community with others, horizontally and vertically. Indeed, in the last six decades these very same member of the “club”,  guided by a transcending moral authority, developed human rights norms and standards that may seem to those who read them the first time as a Utopia that may come through. These are Human Rights Instruments all of which were ratified by three quarters of the 192 Members States. The other third have ratifies at least one. Thus the official commitment to human rights is clear in the long list of ratifications commitments and obligations published by the UN, but civil society does not do enough to claim them in a positive way.

To give human rights some “teeth” and a measure of social accountability, independent Treaty Bodies are at work, year in and year out  at various times of the year, where periodically governments must report on the implementation of the instruments they have ratified. To enforce social accountability NGOs are permitted, unofficially, to submit to the various meeting of the treaty bodies shadow reports which become an important tool in the hands of the independent experts to probe further into specific issues in which civil society is engaged, contributing further to social accountability of the UN.   

However, beyond the technical ratifications and oversight it stands to reason that the human rights framework and its many social and economic justice enunciations, must frame the discussions, concerns, and actions at the UN inert alia: Peace, Security, social and economic justice and development. And as in the mission of our NGO the focus on Societal Development.

Kofi Annan often said that there can be no peace without human rights, no human rights without human security, and no development without human rights and peace. The imposed ignorance on the general public about the holistic vision of human rights as relevant to their daily lives and thus to the social accountability of the United Nations is indeed a human rights violation that must be rectified

The answer is as simple as traffic regulations: we all must learn about human rights as a way of life if we are to move in the world, to our various destinations, free form fear and free from want. We must insist that the United Nations that represents humanity make its decisions only within the human rights framework, and we can do that only if we know to use the language of human rights in a positive way -only if we consciously understand and know human rights as political, moral and legal- moving towards the realization of humanity’s hope and expectations.     

Accountability is one of the most important pillars of human rights that must answer to the realization of equality and lack of discrimination throughout society, in all acts, of all nations and civil society. To be valid, viable, creative and sustained, all actions of all public, and civil institutions must be guided by the Holistic framework of human rights, and no one human right can violate another. Yet, how can we hope for it when most of us who are committed to “make a difference” do not really know human rights as a powerful tool for action.

Furthermore, it is important that we all understand the indivisibility of human rights its interconnectedness and interrelatedness, even if we each choose different entry points: in alphabetical order,  groups that work on the concerns of aged persons, children and youth, differently abled persons, indigenous peoples, immigrants, migrants and migrant workers, minorities and ethnic, refugees and women. And issues such as: development, discrimination, education, environment, health, housing, livelihood and land, participation, peace and disarmament, poverty, race, religion, sexual orientation, work and decent wages,   water, labor development, aged people, migration an immigration, food… All these bear witness to the sanctity of life elaborated in simple yet powerful language that we must all learn to speak and claim its realization by UN Member States . The people of the world must be present and persistent in this effort and engage in social responsibility which is all about human rights as a way of life. (To become a human rights “expert” to add strength to your work please find the human rights language about these groups and issues in “Call for Justice” at:  http://www.pdhre.org/justice.html )

 Prompted by the words of Nelson Mandela saying that we need to “…develop a new political culture based on human rights.” allow me to say that in the final analysis human rights is a political ideology. It is historically true that Communism destroyed socialism and global capitalism is fast in eroding democracy. Human rights evolved from both the positive experience and hopes of socialism and democracy in the hope that Democracy will become a delivery system of human rights.  We have no other option but human rights as a way of life to be the guiding light for assuring a decent future for humanity, both on the individual and community level. After all it is the human who is at the center of humanity.