Enforce Human Rights
We aspire to place Human Rights at the heart of our Open Society. We see the respect of human rights of every individual regardless of their nationality, race, gender, or sexual orientation as indispensable in the structure of any society.
Human Rights violations have occurred all around the world, regardless of commitments to the principles and values expressed in innumerable human rights declarations and treaties. The independence of Human Rights-oriented NGOs is being undermined through illegitimate measures such as censorship, funding cuts, and oppression of free journalism. Political alliances and geostrategic interests are being put forward at the expense of human lives, and respect for human rights is sacrificed in the name of short-term economic gains. It is time that we unite our efforts in boldly stating that Human Rights must not be circumvented under any circumstances. It is time that we insist on governmental adherence to human rights commitments through increasing international monitoring, promoting awareness among the civil society and thus increasing pressure on non- complying states and international actors.
Solution: Hold governments accountable for acting upon Human Rights commitments
We demand that governments and the international community act upon the universality of Human Rights, but for real now!
We strongly believe and recognise the power and responsibility of the international community. We want to build an understanding on an international level of the indispensability and universality of Human Rights as a powerful tool to assert that the rights and dignity of every individual is what lays the foundations of any Open Society.
We aim to achieve that through insistence on reforming national judicial systems, bringing transparency to the core of any judicial process, and guaranteeing impartiality of judicial judgements. We also demand that every individual should have free access to the justice system.
It is also important to emphasise that governments can hold each other accountable for their actions. Governments must comply with Human Rights declarations and treaties that they are signatories to. This could be achieved through peer monitoring, enforcement, and constructivist efforts in strengthening public awareness of the indispensability of Human Rights adherence. A strong civil society is an indisputable guarantee towards transparency and compliance. Respect for International Law and compliance is achievable not only through “hard politics”, but also through a bottom-up approach in which people are empowered through knowledge, awareness, and multicultural understanding of the inherent human dignity and rights of any individual. On an international level, we insist that compliance is ensured through economic and political sanctions, increased mediatised pressure on violators, and legal consequences.
The revival of public awareness and empowering knowledge about what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights means to people all over the world who have, at certain stages of their lives, been subject to discrimination, oppression, and marginalisation, is a starting point for huge change into how we conceptualise international priorities. We stress that people come before interests. We call for mobilisation, empowered agency, and genuine commitment to the values of an Open Society. We insist on stating that Human Rights are not a matter of a question but of a matter of Fact. We have been talking about Human Rights for hundreds of years – now it is time to take concrete action.