Your rights and responsibilities

IN the past 15 years I’ve focused hard on trying to improve the lives of indigenous children here in Australia and Balinese children in Indonesia, yet for me any feelings of accomplishment or pride are always tempered by an awareness of how much more needs to be done. The list seems endless.

As a society we are frequently paralysed with indecision, overwhelmed by the oppressive magnitude of it all. Solutions to human rights issues are generally complex and elusive and there is often a temptation to let time resolve the issue. That may be justified in some instances — gay marriage for example, where public sentiment is steadily building in support of this particular right to happiness and with it, the notion marriage as an institution may actually be strengthened by this sizeable new group.

Other issues can be more problematic although real solutions, even to mega violations of human rights, are available. Recently a group of Nobel laureate researchers detailed how the simple and relatively cheap step of supplying basic nutrients and de-worming pills to children in the first two years of their life has dramatic flow-on benefits for their long-term health and prosperity. In Australia, this kind of early intervention has been seen as crucial to indigenous child welfare and real progress has been made.

Violence against women is a crucial area of human rights. Senator Nova Peris recently cited statistics showing that in the Northern Territory an indigenous woman is 80 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault than other Territorians. She has called for tighter alcohol controls. Yet some human rights advocates see that minor step as unacceptable. They seem to think the right of access to alcohol should prevail over women getting beaten up.

Ironically (some would say hypocritically) many of those same libertarians don’t have a problem infringing the right to free speech in championing clause 18C in the Racial Discrimination Act and making it unlawful to hurt someone’s feelings or offend someone. Nobody wants to see racism but the current bar is too low in making it illegal to hurt someone’s feelings or offend someone. We need to raise the threshold of section 18C so it only relates to serious vilification.

In Turkey it is a jailable offence to say that the Armenian genocide is a historical fact. In some countries (notably France) denying the Holocaust is illegal. Suppressing free speech only plays into the hands of those who ­peddle myths and lies. Surely rat­ional debate is better even if some toes are slightly trodden on.

Many self-appointed human rights warriors can’t let go of discredited socialist ideals. They despise capitalism even though it has been a powerful force in reducing global poverty. It has also produced dangerous sweatshops and gross exploitation but finding a balance between market liberalisation and basic social justice should not be beyond us.

The best way to advance human rights in general is to balance individual rights with social responsibility. That is especially necessary for those to whom responsibility is entrusted. In a capitalist system, capitalism should take the lead, by creating shared value through linking business strategies and corporate social res­ponsibility so that the competitiveness (and profitability) of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent.

While radical Leftists might think that is naive, they should acquaint themselves with the way companies here, such as BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, News Corp Australia and Leighton, have backed the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.

They have created value for their company as well as building a brighter future for thousands of indigenous children through the transformational power of a quality education and careers. The Australian Employment Covenant, another initiative from corporate Australia, has guaranteed jobs for 50,000 indigenous Australians. These are examples of where capitalism operates with a higher purpose, corporate leaders adopting high standards of ethical behaviour and creating shared value. It is a win/win situation.

So many rights activists seem blind to the reality that by far the worst human rights violations occur outside the Western world in places such as Syria and North Korea. The key to both these gross obscenities lies not with the West but with Russia and China. Justice Michael Kirby’s recent UN exposure of the Nazi-like horrors in North Korea, makes it a moral imperative for China to rein in its client state. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is particularly culpable, demanding the Syrian tyrant President Bashar al-Assad remains in power and providing him with copious supplies of weapons. Putin also blocks the UN from exercising its right to protect millions of desperate Syrian civilians, while cynically claiming that right in trampling on the sovereignty of Ukraine and seizing control of Crimea.

Many people at the forefront of human rights feel that these mass human rights violations will never be tackled without some kind of spiritual renaissance. In his book Christian Humanism, Tom Drake-Brockman has suggested that Christian theology should be overhauled to facilitate this. He points out that the powerful Russian Orthodox Church is solidly backing Putin, instead of demanding he use his influence to remove Assad. Drake-Brockman sees this moral bankruptcy as symp­tomatic of a fundamental distortion in Christian theology, a myopic focus on faith and ritual to the detriment of what Christ ­really cherished: compassion and justice.

Significantly, a capitalist is suppling the moral leadership in a key area: Andrew Forrest’s the Global Freedom Network, brings together Catholic, Anglican and Sunni Islamic faiths in an effort to stop modern slavery. It’s a step in the right direction, although the proof will be in seeing results.

So, we continue trying to make the world a better place; savouring small achievements but unable to shake that nagging feeling that humanity could surely do much better than this — if only we got our priorities right.

Andrew Penfold is the NSW Human Rights Ambassador and founder of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.