Naema Tahir on 75 years of Human Rights: "The mother taught me a new language, that of duties"
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and peacekeeping are celebrating their 75 years anniversaries, Naema Tahir looks forward to the next 75 years. How can the UDHR and peacekeeping be strengthened? How can they be more effective? In other words, how can they help better? I share this story because there is a deeper meaning to it which I wish to connect to the UDHR and to peacekeeping in general
, she writes about an encounter she had with a mother in a Nigerian refugee camp, who reminded her that many people around the world think in terms of duties, even before rights. Tahir is assistant professor of law at University College Roosevelt (UCR), researcher at UCERF on the topic of the arranged marriage and Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM).
Peace keeping operations have been criticized as being forces that are put in place to bring Western liberalism to countries rapidly, without good understanding of the local customs, traditions and institutions... Good thought and scholarship are being put into improving peacekeeping endeavors. One reads about involving local communities more in the process, there should be more respect for local traditions, customs and the local religion, and in general there should be more respect and understanding that change takes time... Yet, there is something I always find missing in this narrative of improvement.
I do truly believe that we have a responsibility ahead of us for the next 75 years, and that is to learn a new language.
The mother in the Oru refugee camp taught me a new language. A language we have all heard of but we somehow refuse to really learn and that is the language of duties... Of course, we all know that human rights and duties go hand in hand and that rights always come with responsibilities. The UDHR is not silent on this as it mentions duties in Article 29. The notion of duties are never unknown in our actions either. To just mention one thing: the phrasing of R2P – Responsibility to Protect – expresses duty. Yet, all too often, we do forget, or we simply do not know that many people around the world think in terms of duties. What is less recognized is that many believe in duties before rights.