Democracy and Human Rights

As mentioned in the previous article dated December 2, 2016, the concept of human rights fits only in democracy.  Democracy is the best locus where human rights are recognized, exercised and respected by the authority.  Authoritarian governments will most likely neglect most of human rights of every member of the society.  To its extreme, these governments may even take the most fundamental rights of man like the right to life and the right to live.

Many philosophers theorize the nature and some aspects of democracy.  Etymologically, democracy means the “rule of the people,” which is derived from two Greek words: demos meaning people and kratos meaning rule.  Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher, classified three forms of governments, namely: monarchy, aristocracy and democracy.  By definition, monarchy means a government ruled by one person, the monarch; aristocracy means a government ruled by few, like the aristocrats; and democracy means a government ruled by many or the people.  Yet these governments can become perverted, for example monarchy will turn into totalitarian, aristocracy to oligarchy, or a democracy to a “mob rule.”  With each government’s twists and turns, we can infer that there is no such thing as perfect government. 

In this 21^st century, democracy becomes prevalent in many countries of the world.  This is somehow the outcome of World War II fought between democratic and totalitarian fronts or countries.  This continued during the Cold War between two ideologies and economic powers: communism (adapted in Russia) versus democracy (adapted in the US).  After all these wars, democracy prevails and communism suffers from its gradual downfall.  In history, we’ve seen a clearer picture how human rights are observed under the two different ideologies.  In totalitarian governments like communist countries, human rights are denied.  One concrete manifestation of it is the exclusion of the Bill of Rights in the constitution of the country.  But mostly communist countries don’t have a constitution.  In democratic countries like the US, inclusion of the Bill of Rights in its constitution is a clear manifestation that US government recognized the importance of human rights.  My account here of the world history is "roughly said" but it's undeniably true that democracy promotes the respect of human rights.

In democracy, one’s freedom is given importance.  Democracy provides a space –be it physical or social, for personal growth and development in different areas of life like professional, social, religious and even political.  By physical space, I mean the immediate environment where we live in.  By social space, I mean the social environment we belong.  In democracy, this space is freer to practice our profession and for us to grow in our profession.  With this space, social mobility is prevalent.  This space is very much freer for us to choose and practice our religious belief.  With this space, anyone can engage in political life without any prejudice of social class we belong.  It is only in democratic space where we have opportunities for self-growth in all aspects of life. 

In this context, we understand how the concept of human rights is defined to its fullest sense.  Human rights include all our rights, namely: natural such as the right to life and the right to live and conventional, which includes constitutional, statutory, economic, political, etc.  

What is, then, a human right?  Right is not a privilege of every citizen.  It is rather an exercise of one’s freedom without unnecessary restrictions from outside environment like the family, government or any other institutions.  Human freedom is very necessary condition for each one of us to attain a personal self-realization.  The embodiment of this freedom is one’s human right.  Thus, as discussed above, the idea of human rights can only be exercised under the auspices of democratic principles.

Government shall protect all forms of human rights.  The inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the constitution of any state is the best expression of respect and advocacy of human rights.  Bill of Rights safeguards the rights of every individual from any form of abuses inflicted by other individual, government, or other institution.  It is also necessary for any government to define and redefine human rights in the formulations of statutes or laws because each right is vulnerable to any form of abuses.

In conclusion, every individual deserves due respect from other individual –not because he/she is a friend, a brother, a sister, a father, a mother, a neighbour, or a known personality but because he/she is a human person.  As human as we are, we give due respect to every human being.  However, because of our personal interests, we seem to violate others’ rights.  There are times that our will to do good (goodwill) is weaker than what good we want to do.