HR Day 2010: World celebrates, Kashmir mourns!!!

Ahmad Kashmiri

Today is Dec. 10, world of humans is celebrating it as Human Rights (HR) Day. Books and websites of world records show the diversified importance of this day.

Days are being celebrated, observed, and remembered by the people to mark the importance of varied events and episodes associated with the man on earth. These occasions make us to ponder about our past, present and the future.

Here are some of the definitions and details of HR.

Human rights are those rights which are held by all human beings. The concept of human rights is a universalistic product of the Enlightenment in Europe and the United States, and has since spread around the world. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights)

The basic rights and freedoms that all humans should be guaranteed, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law…

(en.wiktionary.org/wiki/human_rights)

The conditions and expectations to which every person, by virtue of his or her existence as a human being, is entitled. (www-personal.umich.edu)

Certain universal rights many argue should be enjoyed by all people because they are justified by a moral standard that stands above the laws of any individual nation. (p. 953)

occawlonline.pearsoned.com)

These are the rights that every human being automatically qualifies for at birth. They cannot be denied because of the colour of one's skin, religion, age or other personal factors. Central to the concept of human rights is the protection of human dignity. ...

(www.making-prsp-inclusive.org)

…In the same era, societies began turning against cruel and public executions, and against the practice of slavery. Recent controversies on sexual abuse of children show a concern for social rights of children, exposing family practices to the public eye. (www.worldhistorynetwork.org)

The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, OHCHR selected to work with mondofragilis group companies to create the visual identity and campaign tools to mark Human Rights Day 2010.Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Kashmir, a piece of land on earth, some call it paradise, has always been a treasure of human resource in all respects.World celebrates/ observes the occasions and developments emerged out of the utilization of human resources viz politics, freedom, religion, science, technology, inventions, discoveries, personalities, children etc etc. but Kashmir is a different dish to taste in all respects. Here ‘Human Resource’ itself is unwanted, indigestible and an unpalatable thing.

 This is an irony that where we would have celebrated and enjoyed the outcome of human resource, there we are made to mourn even for our children. Every date here is worth mourning. We mourn the killings, we mourn the rapes, we have here disappeared fathers, departed sons, widowed women, half widowed young women. We are a nation being suppressed at every point. Our leaders, intellectuals, religious scholars, think tanks and teen aged youth are murdered for no sin other than being the defendants of the basic HRs.  

The year 2010, with reference to HRs in Kashmir, is all important for those people of the world who love children and for that matter Kashmir witnessed the “killer year” for their children. This time the chief minister of the state is Mr Omer Abdullah, who is neither a child nor an old man but in- between, meaning that much years have not passed since his childhood, further meaning that he “could” realize the pain and agony when a child or a teenager is killed. But alas!  Is it that, he did not feel pain of a father or a brother? Had he felt, and then 1 killing would not have become 116.

And in the place of the premier Prime minister of India, who had been famous for loving children and that is why he is called  Chacha Nehru, now there is Manmohan Uncle, whom the children of Haider Abad, with play cards in their hands, appealed, “Manmohan Uncle, Kashmir Mein Bachoon Ka Qatal Mat Karo” (Manmohan Uncle, don’t kill the children in Kashmir).

In a way there is confusion that who should be blamed for the killings of 116 people most of them the children this year in Kashmir, Chacha Nehru, Manmohan Uncle or both. This is not the time that we shall indulge into discussion but even a child here in Kashmir knows that it was Chacha Nehru who has made a promise with kashmiris for the decision of their future- Right To Self Determination, he himself did not or for that matter could not fulfill the promise. His successors too did not fulfill the promise. It resulted in the formation of a volcano and it started exploding long back. Year 2010 witnessed this volcano exploding with much intensity and now the reign   lies with Manmohan Uncle(Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India), that is why the children of Hyder Abad not tolerating the killing of kashmiri children raised their voice though innocently but for the children lovers it was an emphatic appeal.

It is pertinent to mention the pronouncement of one more website www.timeanddate.com which says, “Events focused on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are held worldwide on and around December 10. Many events aim to educate people, especially children and teenagers, on their human rights and the importance of upholding these in their own communities and further afield.”

In Kashmir, it started on Jan. 8, 2010 with the killing of Anayat Khan, 16, of Dalgate Srinagar when the paramilitary forced killed him in cold blood. Till April 24, 6 more teenagers were killed in the different parts of the valley. And it was June 11, this year when the blood bath started with the innocent killing of Tufail Ahmad Matoo, 17, of Srinagar who was coming back home from his tuition centre and was hit by a tear shell. June 19 witnessed the killing of Rafiq Ahmad Bangroo 24, who was with his people protesting the killing of Tufail and others including those three innocent kashmiris who were killed in a fake encounter in Karnah. Then the sky of Kashmir witnessed killings almost daily or sometimes the toll showed a higher graph than those of days. But the “sky” never turned Red.

The spaceds  does not permit here to list the killings that took place all this year. However the heart-piercing part of the “story” is the killing of those children who were yet innocent to understand the celebration of children’s day, who were just coming out of their infancy. Tawqeer Ahmad Rather of Delina Baramulla is one among them who was “put” into grave just at the age of 9 years. More heart rending is the killing of Sameer Ahmad Rah of Batamaloo who was not killed by any bullet but was brutally  beaten to death in his lawn. All the 116 killings have such tragedies that volumes of books will not suffice. Not only males but females too were not spared. Fancy of Batamaloo and Mubeena Akhtar of Sopur are the two, here to mention.

In a short span of 4 months Jun- Oct, most of the teenagers were brutally killed, world raised voice but this blood bath did not stop in Kashmir. The teenagers who were killed were almost all reading in schools and colleges. I remember Iqbal of Tangmarg, who was a distinction holder in his studies, was a Khateeb (who would give sermon on Fridays), who when recited Quran, his voice would resemble with the voice of Immame Qabba, who after his graduation had the dream to join Madina University for higher studies.

 One fails to understand that what afterall was their sin for which they were killed. And why the children-safeguarding and HR organizations of the world that do much ado on child-care, safety and HR issues, are so silent and behave as spectators.

Thus with 116 killings, on such occasions. Where do we stand? What is our position? Shall we celebrate or mourn these occasions.

The killing mayhem has been so high this year that everyday witnessed more deaths taking place while yet the deaths of former ones were being mourned and as such all other issues of HR, viz, disappearances, tortures, detentions, destruction of property, expression-embargo et el have desperately taken a secondary seat.

Indeed, with all meanings and definitions, a commoner can conclude, that HRs range from ‘life to laugh’. While as life being the primary HR, there are other rights too vital for its health. And I remember the act of a civil administrator, Deputy Commissioner, who in a Tangmarg village, allowed Ahad Shah, a heavy weight and tall man, to speak aloud and plead his case of nut tree, who (Ahad Shah) earlier was forbidden to speak aloud in front of deputy commissioner by the subordinate officers. Deputy Commissioner made the subordinate officers understand that Ahad Shah’s loud voice was well according to his physique and body structure and if he was not allowed to speak aloud he would not express himself fully and would develop psychological distress.

  The first thing that we find in Islam in this connection is that it lays down some rights for man as a human being. In other words it means that every man whether he belongs to this country or that, whether he is a believer or unbeliever, whether he lives in some forest or is found in some desert, whatever be the case, he has some basic human rights simply because he is a human being, which should be recognized by every Muslim. In fact it will be his duty to fulfill these obligations.

The first and the foremost basic right is the right to live and respect human life. The Holy Quran lays down: Whosoever kills a human being without (any reason like) man slaughter, or corruption on earth, it is as though he had killed all mankind ... (5:32)

Immediately after the verse of the Holy Quran which has been mentioned in connection with the right to life, God has said: "And whoever saves a life it is as though he had saved the lives of all mankind" (5:32).

(The author can be mailed at ahmadkashmiri@gmail.com)