Human rights—neither a male nor a female issue

Although females have perennially been in the vicious cycle of being the victims of human rights violations, compliant and conforming male members of the family very often can hardly exercise and enjoy their inalienable human rights in choosing careers as well as their life-partners

Human rights formally refer to those rights ratified by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 (UN General Assembly resolution 217A) and according to the declaration each and every human being across the globe is entitled to enjoy those rights without the least minimum discrimination. In a total 30 articles, the declaration indubitably affirms and establishes in the strongest possible terms the issue of equality as its nucleus. Whenever any case of discrimination is reported anywhere for or against any particular gender, it goes straightway against the stand the declaration upholds. This is why it is crystal clear that human rights issue is an absolutely a gender-neutral issue.
Human rights violation is the most prevalent practice across the globe. Human rights are primarily and basically violated by the establishment or the authority in innumerable forms and fashions. Initially, human rights are violated at elementary unit levels where a group of people work under a local authority assigned to dictate them in getting things done by each member of the group. For instance, the head of the family dictate terms for the members in a set pattern of his own making. In the process of imposing personalized decisions on the individual members it is seen that in most cases these forcible imposition of terms and conditions go against the assured human rights of the people the concerned authority governs.
In choosing career or life-partners, children most often face extremely contra-mindset of the parents compared to their own. This type of force-feeding is customarily the most concrete evidence of parental tyranny and is essentially an act of human rights violation. In the socio-cultural context of the most developing countries of the globe including Bangladesh, gender consideration matters hugely even then the members of both genders are more or less the victims of violation. To make it crystal clear, although females have perennially been in the vicious cycle of being the victims of human rights violations, compliant and conforming male members of the family very often can hardly exercise and enjoy their inalienable human rights in choosing careers as well as their life-partners.
In addition, in shouldering the responsibility of the family, it is predominantly male members who barter their human rights for carrying out responsibilities traditionally assigned for them. For example, the eldest son of the family especially one in a middleclass, lower-middle class or even a lower class in the economic ladder of the society has to spend all money of his own earning for helping to bring up his younger siblings and this eldest brother also in many cases spends his own life being single.
Of course, there are some exceptions where eldest daughters take over the responsibility of the family and make the supreme sacrifice for her younger siblings. These men and women are the situational victims of human rights violations. Because of the extreme complications of the situations, they lose their right to marry, right to have their own property etc. Thus these unsung heroes do often sacrifice many of their human rights upholding the greater unity of the family.
Human rights violation has become a rampant phenomenon in the garments factories. Garments workers are being deprived of their legitimate rights over the years in respect of pay disparity and unjustifiably extended working time. Particularly, the female garments workers are the worst victims of human rights violations. Usually, female garments workers do their assigned duties being divided into small groups and a male supervisor is detailed to monitor the works of each group. This male supervisor is the primary authority of the female workers and by dint of the privilege of his office as a shadow delegate of the owners the male supervisors reportedly happen to become tyrant gradually towards the female workers and become instrumental in curtailing the legitimate rights of the female workers.
The issue of maternity leave of the female garments workers is a glaring example of gross human rights violation of the female garments workers. Female garments workers who happen to be in the family way can hardly manage a 2-month maternity leave instead of official provision for a 6-month one. Garments workers Monoara Begum had to join her work leaving her 1-month old baby in the insecure custody of a neighboring woman with who she was sharing a rented cottage. There are hundreds of such Monoaras who shed tears in silence being separated from their new-born babies. Though the situation has improved to some extent, female garments workers still cannot enjoy the full-length officially proclaimed maternity leave. In many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America female domestic helps are still being treated like slaves made to serve the masters without questions and complaints. Male members of all strata of the society especially the working class people are being indiscriminately deprived of their proclaimed authentic rights.

Male workers are most often made to do maximum risk-involved assignments in their job places especially in places with top-heavy risky machineries. Rustam was a saw-mill worker whose job was to put timber on the sawing table. One day in an inopportune moment, he lost his right hand up to elbow.
The owner gave him only taka twenty thousand for his treatment. Rustam now earns his living begging on the streets. Rustam basic human right to claim genuine compensation from the influential employers has been denied because of Rustam’s unaffordability and unawareness to lodge a lawsuit. Rustam’s case is not a stray incident to point out here. There are thousands of such male victim workers who have lost organs while working for their employers but are denied proper compensations.
Once we look back to history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, we will clearly see that African male slaves transported to the new world were bestially tortured by the slave-traders and their employers compared to the female slaves. Of course, the female slaves were tortured but they were usually fall victims to sadistic sexual pleasure of their employers.
In almost similar fashion, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade has come back in the modern age especially with regard to women. Brazen violation of the human rights of the overseas maid servants working in many Middle-Eastern countries especially those working in the Saudi Arabia is virtually the 21st-century version of the traditional slave trade. Innumerable complaints have been reported about the inhuman tortures of the Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani and many other manpower-exporting countries’ female domestic helps working in the palaces of the Saudi Sheikhs. Grizzly outrageous video footages of these tortures have become rampant scenarios in both the electronic and social media.
It has been emphatically proclaimed in the UN declaration that laborers have to be treated with due dignity as far as their status and payment are concerned. In practice, the picture is totally reverse to the UN declaration. Human rights index in many Asian, African and above all in many one-party states has been steadily and consistently marking a downward trend. In these countries rights to dissent and free speech have been totally forbidden and the dissenters are roughly harassed and persecuted. But female-slaves were hardly killed brutally like their male fellow-slaves. These violations of human rights are still continuing unabated.
Children both male and female also become the hapless victims of human rights violations. A common example is child labour which is an outrageously rampant manifestation in the developing and underdeveloped countries. In Bangladesh and many other countries, rights of both male and female are being denied in varying degrees and proportions across the globe. For example, according to Indian Bureau of Statistics, 15% Indian marginalized peasants commit suicide after failing utterly to afford the expenditure of the family. Now the question may well arise what is the common point of relation between suicide and human rights violation.
When a citizen can’t get the minimum provisions to sustain life or if otherwise stated if the products of the marginalized growers cannot be sold even at the price of the production cost, the responsibility or liability of not ensuring this price eventually falls, categorically speaking, almost directly on the establishment or the authority or the government. According to UN Universal Declaration of Human rights, right to receive due returns for one’s labor or investment is unquestionably a basic human right. In these cases, the establishment may be sued for provocation to suicide. Isn’t it a gross human right violation indirectly perpetrated by the authority or the establishment?
In brick-kilns, laborers are made to work for more than a 10-hour shift. The kiln-owners usually take advantage of the extreme poverty of the workers. Although kiln-workers are predominantly men, women are also seen working in many kilns. In kilns, both male and female laborers work for longer shift at a payment much lower in proportion to the inhumanly overwork they do. Here right to deserved pay which is obviously an indissoluble human right is being clearly denied.   
Obviously, the most remarkable thing here to point out is that in some cases women’s inalienable rights are being denied outrageously and in other contrary situations men’s genuine rights are being trampled brutally. Since the male and the female face variegated socio-cultural realities and oddities even though they live in the same society, their type and pattern of human rights violations vary yet the reality of violation is true to both the male and the female. The most important thing is that the realities either a male or a female is locked in may be the cause of his/her human rights violations. Whatever may be their working and living realities both men and women fall victims to human rights denial.
In the truest sense of the term, human rights denial is not at all a gender-bias issue today or was so in the past either. The imperialist and the capitalist powers customarily exploited and tortured both men and women for making more profits and more money. This is the basic chemistry of human rights denial. To make it clear, in the manufacturing civilization, the value of humanity is not honored and glorified. Rather, the value of human flesh is assessed by the market price.
Unless and until we change our pattern of looking at things and set a new mindset where the humanity will triumph over all other considerations, there will be the real freedom of human spirit. Only then, it is hoped that human rights of all human beings irrespective of the social and economic status will be established properly. Therefore, we have to remember above everything else that establishing human rights which is neither a male nor a female issue is not an isolated effort of any lone individual or any particular segment of the society but it is a participatory involvement of the entire society.             

The writer, an Assistant Professor of English at Bogra Cantonment

Public School & College, is a contributor to The Independent.
E-mail:[email protected]

 

 

 

 

Human rights—neither a male nor a female issue

Although females have perennially been in the vicious cycle of being the victims of human rights violations, compliant and conforming male members of the family very often can hardly exercise and enjoy their inalienable human rights in choosing careers as well as their life-partners

Human rights formally refer to those rights ratified by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 (UN General Assembly resolution 217A) and according to the declaration each and every human being across the globe is entitled to enjoy those rights without the least minimum discrimination. In a total 30 articles, the declaration indubitably affirms and establishes in the strongest possible terms the issue of equality as its nucleus. Whenever any case of discrimination is reported anywhere for or against any particular gender, it goes straightway against the stand the declaration upholds. This is why it is crystal clear that human rights issue is an absolutely a gender-neutral issue. Human rights violation is the most prevalent practice across the globe. Human rights are primarily and basically violated by the establishment or the authority in innumerable forms and fashions. Initially, human rights are violated at elementary unit levels where a group of people work under a local authority assigned to dictate them in getting things done by each member of the group. For instance, the head of the family dictate terms for the members in a set pattern of his own making. In the process of imposing personalized decisions on the individual members it is seen that in most cases these forcible imposition of terms and conditions go against the assured human rights of the people the concerned authority governs. In choosing career or life-partners, children most often face extremely contra-mindset of the parents compared to their own. This type of force-feeding is customarily the most concrete evidence of parental tyranny and is essentially an act of human rights violation. In the socio-cultural context of the most developing countries of the globe including Bangladesh, gender consideration matters hugely even then the members of both genders are more or less the victims of violation. To make it crystal clear, although females have perennially been in the vicious cycle of being the victims of human rights violations, compliant and conforming male members of the family very often can hardly exercise and enjoy their inalienable human rights in choosing careers as well as their life-partners. In addition, in shouldering the responsibility of the family, it is predominantly male members who barter their human rights for carrying out responsibilities traditionally assigned for them. For example, the eldest son of the family especially one in a middleclass, lower-middle class or even a lower class in the economic ladder of the society has to spend all money of his own earning for helping to bring up his younger siblings and this eldest brother also in many cases spends his own life being single. Of course, there are some exceptions where eldest daughters take over the responsibility of the family and make the supreme sacrifice for her younger siblings. These men and women are the situational victims of human rights violations. Because of the extreme complications of the situations, they lose their right to marry, right to have their own property etc. Thus these unsung heroes do often sacrifice many of their human rights upholding the greater unity of the family. Human rights violation has become a rampant phenomenon in the garments factories. Garments workers are being deprived of their legitimate rights over the years in respect of pay disparity and unjustifiably extended working time. Particularly, the female garments workers are the worst victims of human rights violations. Usually, female garments workers do their assigned duties being divided into small groups and a male supervisor is detailed to monitor the works of each group. This male supervisor is the primary authority of the female workers and by dint of the privilege of his office as a shadow delegate of the owners the male supervisors reportedly happen to become tyrant gradually towards the female workers and become instrumental in curtailing the legitimate rights of the female workers. The issue of maternity leave of the female garments workers is a glaring example of gross human rights violation of the female garments workers. Female garments workers who happen to be in the family way can hardly manage a 2-month maternity leave instead of official provision for a 6-month one. Garments workers Monoara Begum had to join her work leaving her 1-month old baby in the insecure custody of a neighboring woman with who she was sharing a rented cottage. There are hundreds of such Monoaras who shed tears in silence being separated from their new-born babies. Though the situation has improved to some extent, female garments workers still cannot enjoy the full-length officially proclaimed maternity leave. In many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America female domestic helps are still being treated like slaves made to serve the masters without questions and complaints. Male members of all strata of the society especially the working class people are being indiscriminately deprived of their proclaimed authentic rights. Male workers are most often made to do maximum risk-involved assignments in their job places especially in places with top-heavy risky machineries. Rustam was a saw-mill worker whose job was to put timber on the sawing table. One day in an inopportune moment, he lost his right hand up to elbow. The owner gave him only taka twenty thousand for his treatment. Rustam now earns his living begging on the streets. Rustam basic human right to claim genuine compensation from the influential employers has been denied because of Rustams unaffordability and unawareness to lodge a lawsuit. Rustams case is not a stray incident to point out here. There are thousands of such male victim workers who have lost organs while working for their employers but are denied proper compensations. Once we look back to history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, we will clearly see that African male slaves transported to the new world were bestially tortured by the slave-traders and their employers compared to the female slaves. Of course, the female slaves were tortured but they were usually fall victims to sadistic sexual pleasure of their employers. In almost similar fashion, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade has come back in the modern age especially with regard to women. Brazen violation of the human rights of the overseas maid servants working in many Middle-Eastern countries especially those working in the Saudi Arabia is virtually the 21st-century version of the traditional slave trade. Innumerable complaints have been reported about the inhuman tortures of the Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani and many other manpower-exporting countries female domestic helps working in the palaces of the Saudi Sheikhs. Grizzly outrageous video footages of these tortures have become rampant scenarios in both the electronic and social media. It has been emphatically proclaimed in the UN declaration that laborers have to be treated with due dignity as far as their status and payment are concerned. In practice, the picture is totally reverse to the UN declaration. Human rights index in many Asian, African and above all in many one-party states has been steadily and consistently marking a downward trend. In these countries rights to dissent and free speech have been totally forbidden and the dissenters are roughly harassed and persecuted. But female-slaves were hardly killed brutally like their male fellow-slaves. These violations of human rights are still continuing unabated. Children both male and female also become the hapless victims of human rights violations. A common example is child labour which is an outrageously rampant manifestation in the developing and underdeveloped countries. In Bangladesh and many other countries, rights of both male and female are being denied in varying degrees and proportions across the globe. For example, according to Indian Bureau of Statistics, 15% Indian marginalized peasants commit suicide after failing utterly to afford the expenditure of the family. Now the question may well arise what is the common point of relation between suicide and human rights violation. When a citizen cant get the minimum provisions to sustain life or if otherwise stated if the products of the marginalized growers cannot be sold even at the price of the production cost, the responsibility or liability of not ensuring this price eventually falls, categorically speaking, almost directly on the establishment or the authority or the government. According to UN Universal Declaration of Human rights, right to receive due returns for ones labor or investment is unquestionably a basic human right. In these cases, the establishment may be sued for provocation to suicide. Isnt it a gross human right violation indirectly perpetrated by the authority or the establishment? In brick-kilns, laborers are made to work for more than a 10-hour shift. The kiln-owners usually take advantage of the extreme poverty of the workers. Although kiln-workers are predominantly men, women are also seen working in many kilns. In kilns, both male and female laborers work for longer shift at a payment much lower in proportion to the inhumanly overwork they do. Here right to deserved pay which is obviously an indissoluble human right is being clearly denied. Obviously, the most remarkable thing here to point out is that in some cases womens inalienable rights are being denied outrageously and in other contrary situations mens genuine rights are being trampled brutally. Since the male and the female face variegated socio-cultural realities and oddities even though they live in the same society, their type and pattern of human rights violations vary yet the reality of violation is true to both the male and the female. The most important thing is that the realities either a male or a female is locked in may be the cause of his/her human rights violations. Whatever may be their working and living realities both men and women fall victims to human rights denial. In the truest sense of the term, human rights denial is not at all a gender-bias issue today or was so in the past either. The imperialist and the capitalist powers customarily exploited and tortured both men and women for making more profits and more money. This is the basic chemistry of human rights denial. To make it clear, in the manufacturing civilization, the value of humanity is not honored and glorified. Rather, the value of human flesh is assessed by the market price. Unless and until we change our pattern of looking at things and set a new mindset where the humanity will triumph over all other considerations, there will be the real freedom of human spirit. Only then, it is hoped that human rights of all human beings irrespective of the social and economic status will be established properly. Therefore, we have to remember above everything else that establishing human rights which is neither a male nor a female issue is not an isolated effort of any lone individual or any particular segment of the society but it is a participatory involvement of the entire society. The writer, an Assistant Professor of English at Bogra Cantonment Public School College, is a contributor to The Independent. E-mail:[email protected]