Whenever human rights issues come up in the media this can basically be differentiated into two categories. The first category relates to “apparent” human rights violations that occur in the current crisis regions of the world or are committed by certain regimes. Viewed from the European perspective these violations occur for the most part elsewhere.
The second category of human rights issues which are present in the media discourse is composed of questions circling around the core topic of migration. Without doubt this topic forms one of the most essential questions and challenges of our present time. The problems arising are massive and the human rights are permanently being violated – most frequently mentioned the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution, in short: the right of asylum.
Yet the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 comprises thirty articles which also outline rights that are not so firmly embedded in the public awareness and that the general public in many cases would not expressly count among its general notion of human rights. Many of these codified rights are permanently being violated in different European countries and are constantly in danger of fading to the background even more than they have up to now:
Just think of the right to social security and the social change of recent years when the cutback of hard-won social standards and securities has become more than visible in every nook and corner.
In times of neoliberal economy the right to work and to protection against unemployment is by all means of less value than the interests of entrepreneurs and their shareholders. For even in case of steadily rising profits it is not unusual that companies downsize staff, i.e. people lose their jobs for the sake of even more profit.
Absurd as it may be to talk about the violation of one of the hardest-won rights, it is already part of our European reality: in an increasing number of companies the right to form and to join trade unions isn’t valid anymore.
The right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being covers many aspects such as a clean environment, access to (clean) resources, shelter, health care etc. What is currently linked to this are issues of the private vs. the public (or state-run) sector. Still privatizations are in progress and even enter sectors such as water supply or hospitals. Will private companies really be interested in safeguarding the human rights? Even if this doesn’t yield profits?
The right to education is in danger wherever free access to educational institutions is not guaranteed, either by means of economic obstacles such as school fees or a flawed scholarship system, or by discrimination in pre-teen years victimizing first and foremost children belonging to minority groups.
Both politics and the administration are quite resourceful in their efforts to undermine the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. When the interests of the powerful from politics and business are involved, spacious no-protest zones are quickly established and potential protesters are prevented from taking part in demonstrations already at an early stage.
Etc., etc., etc. … And not even in abbreviated form it is possible to address current violations of all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here, not to mention the numerous additional declarations which have been passed since 1948.
And what’s more, there are the blanks that exist within the value system of the Universal Declaration. These are only partly the result of social change, which has created new issues related to the human rights, but, first and foremost, they arise from the fundamental structures which are inherent to the system of the Universal Declaration and which do not offer satisfying answers regarding notions such as e.g. participation and universalism. Who is integrated into the process of the further development of the human rights and to which extent do the codified human rights do justice to the diversity of the world’s population?
It is from the vantage point of art that the “Land of Human Rights“ intends to come up with contributions to the discourse around the human rights and increase people’s awareness of the fact that human rights issues are part of their own everyday life and that it is therefore worth the while to be better informed in order to be more and more able to argue in favour of one’s own rights.