Every 10th of December, the world marks Human Rights Day as the day in 1948 that the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and on the same day, we in the MME Thinktank mark the anniversary of our founding.
Looking around the world this year, it is clear that we need to see the implementation of the Universal Declaration more than ever.
MME members and colleagues at Stormont
This landmark document affirms the fundamental rights of every individual. This year's theme, "Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now," highlights the importance of human rights in shaping a better world. Today, we are urged to recognize the impact of human rights in our lives and to combat hate and misinformation.
The Government of Bashar al-Assad has fallen in Syria, and as prisons are opened, the extent of human rights abuses such as torture under the old regime is becoming shockingly clear. What is not yet clear is how the situation will unfold. The ongoing war in Ukraine, nearing the three-year mark, is said to have cost 43,000 Ukrainian lives, with an estimated 198,000 on the Russian side, at least according to Volodymyr Zelensky. The violence and destruction in Gaza is ongoing. It is only a few days since Amnesty International produced an extensive report detailing actions undertaken by the Israeli authorities in Gaza that, they argue, amount to acts of genocide.
Less well-publicised conflicts and human rights abuses rage elsewhere too. The Taliban continue to impose draconian restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan, the latest being a potentially devastating ban on medical education for female students. Hosting over 1 million refugees before the outbreak of the civil war in 2023, Sudan has seen over 11 million people displaced and very high rates of death, including from starvation.
The overspilling effect has been most severe in surrounding countries, of course. The great majority of forcibly displaced people, 87 per cent, live in low- and middle-income countries, with only a small minority seeking refuge in wealthy countries. There were only 2,700 people in receipt of asylum support in Northern Ireland in March 2024. Despite this small amount, there have been regular ‘protests’ at former hotels housing people in contingency accommodation, with graffiti and intimidation of ethnic minority families in some areas. And this summer, Northern Ireland (as well as parts of England) saw anti-immigrant demonstrations, some of which became violent, with mobs attacking businesses and setting cars alight.
It was notable that the ‘protestors’ seemed to direct their anger at ‘immigrants’ in general, but in particular at those seeking asylum (the hotels) and at Muslims (they planned to march on the Belfast Islamic Centre, and attacked Muslim-owned shops). This targeted hostility did not emerge in a vacuum. If, as some claimed, there were ‘legitimate concerns’ about housing, school places and public services behind the rioting, it is curious that the violence was so specifically targeted – and that shortfalls in public provision appear to have occasioned no demonstrations from the protestors, before or since.
There is work to be done to review the misinformation that was stoked and circulated in the run up to these events. There is also work to be done to understand and to address some of the drivers of forced migration: the conflicts mentioned above; oil and other resource conflicts; desertification or flooding due to climate change, and so on. And there is work to do to understand the effects an economic model geared towards maximising the extraction and privatisation of resources rather than distributing them democratically and equitably across the whole neighbourhood.
A politics of hostility, which proceeds by denominating this or that convenient group as ‘the enemy’, not only does nothing to address those root causes, but actively misdirects our efforts away from addressing them.
Indeed, members of the MME Thinktank have been involved in some of the efforts to address the deeper causes of such hostility this year.
Early in the year, the Scholars at Risk Ireland Committee held their annual launch of the Free to Think Report in Northern Ireland. Organised by Prof Dina Zoe Belluigi with Prof Rory O’Connell and Prof Brandon Hamber. Discussions included how to support universities and academics at risk due to political or violent conflict in Afghanistan, Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine, in addition to those facing threats and limits to their academic freedom and practice on the island.
Prof Dina Zoe Belluigi led the organisation of a symposium in June about research on race, ethnicity and migration in Northern Ireland, bringing together many researchers, practitioners and NGOs who work on these issues (see the report of their discussions available here). Within days of the riots, she published a paper about local research cultures of dysconsciousness around racism and xenophobia in the Journal of Academic Ethics, informed by a project in which the MMEThinkTank had partnered (read it here)
In September, members of the Thinktank in partnership with NILGA organised an event at Stormont about migrant and minority ethnic participation in the political arena in Northern Ireland, based on the survey findings presented by Alfred Abolarin on behalf of the CDPB Fellows of Class 2022.
Eileen Chan-Hu, gave an overview of the inequalities and discrimination that were present and the lack of policy and political development for a more harmonious society.
Maurice Macartney and Dina Belluigi have also been involved in Queen’s University Belfast’s programme of actions designed to move the institution along the ‘Path to Sanctuary’.
We look forward to an upcoming conference in 2025, about racism in Northern Ireland. Contact Dr Timofey Agarin for further details on that.
We live in troubled and troubling times. This International Human Rights day stands as a reminder of the importance that, all across the globe, people and organisations can combine their energies to put down a lasting marker: the commitment to build a world in which the human rights, indeed, the humanity of all of us is recognised, cherished, and given the material support it needs to be protected and to flourish. Today, more than ever, our role continues to be to promote justice and inclusivity for all.
MME Thinktank
10.12.2024
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