19 September, 2006

A step in the right direction...

Cairo: The United Arab Emirates signed the Arab charter on human rights at the Arab league headquarters on Tuesday, becoming the thirteenth signatories of the blueprint.
...
The 53 article charter reaffirms the principles the Islamic Sharia and Arab values, the charter of the United Nations and the universal declaration of human rights, as well as the provisions of the United Nations international covenants on civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights and the Cairo declaration on human rights in Islam.

Article (2) of the charter reads: '' Each state party to the present charter undertakes to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the right to enjoy all the rights and freedoms recognised herein, without any distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status and without any discrimination between men and women.

''The states parties shall protect every person in their territory from being subjected to physical or mental torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. They shall take effective measures to prevent such acts and shall regard the practice thereof, or participation therein, as a punishable offence," another article says.

The charters also covers rights of women, workers and people with special needs as well as their educational and cultural rights.


more here

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Each state party to the present charter undertakes to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the right to enjoy all the rights and freedoms recognised herein, without any distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status and without any discrimination between men and women.

/me plays a small violin

dream on . . .

i, Bobo said...

Not a step in the right direction.

Not even a lean.

Maybe a toe wiggle...

Where to begin? First off, how about Articles 18 & 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Article 18.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

I'm not particularly religious but if I were and I was to go out and hand a Muslim a Bible, you know -- encourage them to convert -- you think the authorities here wouldn't have a problem?

Not likely.

Article 19.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Uh huh.

Tell that to Etisalat the next time you try to get to youtube, or Hi5, or flickr. The next time you try to call home on SKYPE or GIZMO. The next time you try to explore different perspectives on the world and find the site blocked. What about the mutilation of films before we see them in cinemas? Or the banning of books or videos deemed to be contrary to cultural or religious values? We're not talking about pornography here, we're often times talking about texts that examine politics or history.

Further, couldn't my right to expression logically be extended to something as serious as picketing an unfair employer or something as trivial as the right wear shorts in Sharjah?

There are 28 other articles in the Declaration that address all sorts of issues like privacy, warrants, employment, property, you know -- basic human rights -- some of which exist here only in grotesquely twisted form, most of which don't exist at all.

They signed a document they have no intention of honoring.

Hypocrites.

marwan said...

Here, here, Bobo.

They must have thought they were signing the visa slip for dinner or something.

Seabee said...

Signing is the easy bit. Now comes the hard part - implementing it. Don't hold your breath.

Proud Emirati said...

lol, I dont trust anything related to Arab legue

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