Kathryn Cameron Porter has long worked for the rights of indigenous populations. These diverse groups have endured ongoing human rights violations; on International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, 2005, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan remarked, “We recall the tremendous challenges which so many indigenous peoples face, ranging from unacceptable levels of poverty and disease to dispossession, discrimination, and denial of basic human rights.” LCHR is striving through strategic campaigns to relieve the plight of indigenous populations.
Indigenous peoples from Vietnam’s Central Highlanders to North America’s Native Americans to Australia’s Aborigines share a history of hardships. Throughout the centuries these groups have experienced systematic suppression – they have been victims of colonization and have been forcibly removed from their native lands, marginalized at the fringe of society, disenfranchised, and in some cases, willfully exterminated through traditional and germ warfare.
José Martinez Cobo, who served as a UN Special Rapporteur on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations, defined indigenous peoples this way:
"Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present territory of a country wholly or partially at the time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there from other parts of the world, overcame them, by conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-dominant or colonial condition; who today live more in conformity with their particular social, economic and cultural customs and traditions than with the institutions of the country of which they now form part, under a state structure which incorporates mainly national, social and cultural characteristics of other segments of the population which are predominant."
The 1994 Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples includes language to protect the cultural, civil, and political rights of indigenous groups. It states, in part, “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, economic, social and cultural characteristics, as well as their legal systems, while retaining their rights to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State” (Article 4). Also, “Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and to full guarantees against genocide or any other act of violence.... In addition, they have the individual rights to life, physical and mental integrity, liberty and security of person” (Article 6).
The Declaration goes on to include protections for indigenous groups’ religious practices, their tribal lands, their customs and their identity. Unfortunately, certain peoples’ rights as defined by the UN are not respected by the governments of the countries where they reside. Some governments, consumed with the idea of establishing a strong national identity, do not acknowledge the existence of ethnic minorities. For instance, in Egypt, the Coptic Christian community is recognized only as a religious minority, but it is also an ethnically distinct group descended from ancient Egyptians. In other places, like Vietnam, ethnic minorities living in the Central Highlands face high levels of poverty, along with a lack of access to basic education and healthcare services. In Thailand, the Yellow Leaf people, a nomadic tribe who inhabit the rainforest, face near extinction because agriculture and logging have destroyed the land they depend on for their continued existence.
Indigenous peoples need vigorously enforced provisions to protect them from forces which continue to destroy their culture. They need arable land, access to healthcare facilities and schools, legal safeguards to prevent official or unofficial discrimination against them, and freedom to practice their customs and religious beliefs to continue their way of life.
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Women are the linchpins of society. In the words of LCHR President and applied anthropologist Kathryn Cameron Porter, “Men are interested in the continuity of governments, while women are interested in the continuity of generations.” Almost everywhere in the world, women provide family structure and stability, act as the primary caregivers and providers for their children, and create the backbone of cultural life. Women’s participation in all aspects of civil affairs is vital to creating flourishing civilizations.
Despite women’s many important roles, all across the globe, no single group suffers more persecution, is more likely to endure poverty and violence, or to face starvation than women. In almost every developing country women are relegated to second class citizenship. In certain regions of the world they are denied the right to participate in government, operate businesses, and even such basic freedoms as leaving the house without a male escort and driving a car. Women are subject to such abominable practices as female genital mutilation, systematic rape in times of ethnic conflict, honor killings, human trafficking – and the list goes on. Extreme poverty, however, is sometimes just as deadly for women as violence against them.
LCHR is focused on projects that promote the equality of women through education, training and financial assistance. While our organization works to educate foreign governments on women’s issues, we also work with women directly to give them to tools they need to succeed in changing their societies.
Microfinance may be the single most effective tool to help the world’s neediest women improve their lives. Giving women small loans to start micro enterprises also means giving them economic independence and freedom from shackling poverty.
Microfinance works because poor women have a powerful work ethic, but face numerous obstacles to financial independence. They want to be able to provide for their children, but they aren’t considered “bankable.” Without microfinance initiatives, they are never given the chance to break the vicious cycle of poverty in which they are trapped. With as little capital as $100, these women can buy the supplies they need to start a successful enterprise, which can in turn dramatically improve their family’s quality of life. Microfinance provides economic sustenance for the world’s poorest women, and it also gives them a strong sense of self-worth and empowerment that they have never experienced before. Micro-entrepreneurs not only flourish when given small loans, but they faithfully pay them back. Ninety-seven percent of ACCION International’s loan recipients repay their loans in full. Other well known microfinance institutions like FINCA International have similarly successful repayment rates.
LCHR is developing microfinance projects to help women improve the quality of their lives as well as the lives of their children.
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Freedom of expression, freedom from persecution based on race, gender or creed, freedom from inhumane treatment – these are the human rights usually thought of as the inalienable liberties afforded to all people. There is another integral right, one which is sometimes forgotten – the right to environmental health.
Environmental health and human rights intersect at the most critical level of life. The welfare of human beings depends on healthy ecosystems. While ideals such as religious freedom and gender equality may stand out more obviously in the traditional realm of human rights, a healthy environment is just as critical to the well-being of humankind. Without fundamentals like clean air and water, people cannot live healthy lives, which may prevent them from exercising other human rights. As Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs illustrates, people must have their physiological needs like hunger and thirst met before they can do anything else – including participating in civil society.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by the United Nations in 1948, states that all people are guaranteed the right to a standard of living “adequate for health and well-being.” In 2003, the World Health Organization expanded the language of the original declaration to include clean water as a human right. According to the World Bank, more than 1 billion people lack a safe source of drinking water. This statistic represents one of the greatest human rights injustices in the world today.
The world’s rural poor survive by practicing subsistence agriculture, and consequently depend on natural resources like land and water for sustenance. Without the produce they grow, many would have no means of supporting their families. Thus, it is essential to safeguard the environment to protect the livelihood of this huge segment of the population. Environmental protection groups like Conservation International are embarking on such projects to improve the lives of those living in “biodiversity hotspots,” while the Peace Corps continues its decades-long process of teaching ecologically sound farming techniques from the African plains to the Amazon.
Another environmental advocacy group, Earthjustice, wrote in its 2004 report, Human Rights and the Environment, “the relationship between environmental problems and human rights violations calls for a holistic treatment of these issues.” The Leadership Council for Human Rights believes that microfinance represents one way to holistically treat this set of problems. This strategy of making small business loans to rural poor people not only economically empowers them, but also teaches them valuable lessons in conservation, as many microfinance projects focus on agriculture initiatives such as intensive gardens or co-ops. Partnering NGOs train project participants to use ecologically sound farming methods. Microfinance also allows human rights workers to monitor the situation on the ground in remote areas by keeping in close contact with its microfinance partners, helping to secure the rights of vulnerable groups.
While environmental health remains elusive in many parts of the world today, there is great reason to hope that we can provide this essential human right to all people within the coming generations through diligent work and a commitment to the ideal that everyone deserves fresh air, clean water, and a healthy environment in which to live.
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In the U.S., the notion of religious freedom can easily be taken for granted. After all, there is nothing to stop Americans from attending the church, mosque, temple, or other sacred place of their choosing to express their faith. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights sets in stone the fundamental right to practice religion without restriction. It is, in essence, the most elemental human right that we possess. The personal experience of spiritual things is the very source of religion. Leadership Council for Human Rights President Kathryn Cameron Porter succinctly sums up the importance of religious freedom: “It is between you and your god.”
John Hanford, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, says that “freedom of religion and conscience is the cornerstone of liberty…As we maintain the vitality of a pluralistic society, we work to ensure equal treatment of faith-based organizations and people of faith.”
People of faith are afforded more than just the right to practice their beliefs. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) says, “Religious liberty begins with the right to worship freely but doesn’t end there; it also encompasses freedom of thought and conscience, and the right to build schools and start charities.”
Despite the U.S. guarantee to protect religious freedom, some countries do not share this commitment, and even within the U.S., de facto discrimination against certain religious groups sometimes occurs. The countries which the U.S. deems the worst offenders of religious freedom, or the so-called “Countries of Particular Concern,” include Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.
Ambassador Hanford acknowledges that significant progress has been made in Vietnam in the last year alone, but other CPCs, like China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia still provide virtually no protections for religious freedom. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, “crimes” such as insulting Islam and committing apostasy (converting to a religion other than Islam) are punishable by beheading under Shari’a law. In Afghanistan, which is not on the CPC list, the publisher of a human rights magazine was jailed in October, 2005 for running articles critical of certain aspects of Islamic law (his prosecutor sought the death penalty). Some nations imprison religious dissidents, or leaders of churches not sanctioned by the state. In South East Asian Communist countries, all religious groups must register to be officially recognized by the government and to be safe from harassment. House churches are illegal and their leaders often face problems with local government officials.
Achieving tolerance among different communities of faith and their governments is tantamount to ensuring the respect for all people’s human rights. Congress, along with the human rights community must continue to work to create conditions for true religious freedom to prevail in the world so that everyone is entitled to pursue the spiritual path they have chosen. Individual faith, far from being a crime, is for some the defining characteristic in their lives. Forcing communities of faith to worship in secret, in fear of jail time or even death, is a gross violation of the most fundamental human right.
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