Commentary
For Americans, it's easy to speak out against violations of human rights
By Kristi Rendahl
Kristi Rendahl is the organizational development adviser for a project of The Center for Victims of Torture in St. Paul.
A few weeks ago, former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted of aiding and abetting war crimes in Sierra Leone. Just recently, military commander Ratko Mladic entered the courtroom at The Hague and callously made a throat-slitting gesture at survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, for which many believe he is responsible. His trial is scheduled to resume next month.
Minnesota is home to several thousand Bosnians and more than 25,000 Liberians. In the past six months, I've spent time in Bosnia, Liberia and Lebanon, among other countries directly affected by war and torture. Returning from Sri Lanka in late April, I noticed how challenging it can be to explain the lingering trauma in these places.
The war in Bosnia has been over for nearly 17 years, but the devastating effects remain. It's hard to imagine living in the same community as someone who killed your friend or raped your sister. But for Bosnians it is reality. The rape camps were not just violations that can be forgotten. Communities are haunted by this legacy as children conceived by rape come of age, and deep-seated anger manifests itself in domestic violence.
In Liberia, the core mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was to determine responsibility for crimes and violations of human rights in order to ensure justice for the country's citizens. But while the verdict for Taylor was read, the recommendations contained in the TRC's report sat on a figurative shelf. Impunity reigned.
Back home, media coverage is filled with semantic gymnastics about torture. The United States and 77 other countries around the world are signatories to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, yet its use is endlessly debated and the buck stops nowhere.
To do the right thing in the United States requires only the will to defend the worth of human beings wherever they are threatened. There is nothing to prevent us from assuming leadership. Nothing except ourselves.
In my work at the Center for Victims of Torture as an organizational development adviser to indigenous torture rehabilitation centers in 10 countries around the world, I have heard stories that would offend anyone who cares. At the same time, I am humbled and inspired by efforts to heal and move forward toward something positive, something worthy of celebration.
Those who are making such efforts work against all odds. They hire bodyguards to protect themselves. They tiptoe around terms like "torture" and "human rights" that may incite backlash from sensitive governments. They risk their lives to reach out to people who have been paralyzed by this violation of human dignity.
These everyday heroes — many of them women — run their hotbeds of empathy from modest offices with dilapidated vehicles and shoestring budgets. They expect no laudatory comments or awards. They only want to help their fellow community members reclaim lives of productivity and maybe even a little happiness.
Individuals can make a difference. And that can happen far in advance of a war or a genocide. We start by simply saying something when we see people mistreated, and by speaking for the voiceless. The public dialogue about bullying fully applies here. War criminals are not created overnight. When people tolerate the entitlement that leads to increasingly greater acts of abuse, humanity spins its wheels. Or worse. Before invading Poland, Hitler capitalized on this dangerous apathy, saying: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
The roots of war and torture are deep. Personally, I take my cues from the devoted people who do this work in often openly hostile environments. There are infinite reasons for them to abandon their struggle, but they straighten their backs and carry on. Maybe it's time the rest of us dust off our Latin books: qui tacet, consentit. Silence implies consent.
Comments (11)
Astra non mentiuntur, sed astrologi bene mentiuntur de astris.
Aegrescit medendo.
Lets keep our collective giant nose out of other peoples business. Let the tribes work out their historic differences by their own means, free of our interference.
They will anyway.
We waste billions of the taxpayers dollars on do-gooder nonsense around the world, just to find the peoples are not willing to be jerked into our civilization, but prefer to, and will, work out their own destiny in their own time and way, no matter how stone age it is.
Give them the respect to leave them alone. It is their life. Not yours. Let them have at it in their way.
The tribal bosses are going to steal any money funneled into their land. And, as soon as you turn your back, they will slaughter their own people according to their own history. You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
But, perhaps us taxpayers should buy those hard working females a BMW each. Or at least a Toyota.
"There is nothing to prevent us from assuming leadership. Nothing except ourselves."
Thank you, Rendahl, for being a leader in US public media by sharing your experiences and sense of hope in humanity. Empathy has no national boarders.
Thank you for this commentary, Ms Rendahl. You articulate very well the reasons why we Americans should care about the harm caused by human rights violations, wherever they occur. You also show the cost of apathy and the failure to set and uphold clear standards of law with respect to what is permissible conduct - even in war. Clearly held and enforced international norms do deter heinous conduct and can prevent atrocity. The only cost is a willingness to be held to the same standards we apply to others. Thank you for your efforts and those of CVT in fearlessly championing those norms.
Great article, Kristi!
To the previous comment by Terry:
People cannot "have it their way" if they are living in the trap of institutionalized torture.
Although the US and UN eventually do get deeply involved, in many cases, the top goal is to prevent a crisis in the first place. A key point of this article, in fact, is early recognition and action: "Individuals can make a difference. And that can happen far in advance of a war or a genocide."
This is not about promoting "our civilization." It is about inspiring afflicted people to stand up for their own basic human rights. This ability is fundamental to the healing process and to the future of any civilization.
By taking this approach, it helps not only where we directly intervene, but also where other societies see a working example and take it upon themselves to spread the courage and stand united against deadly oppression.
To Terry, who posted above, it might be one thing to "keep our giant collective nose out of other people's business" if it were their business from the start. Unfortunately, in most cases, the problems were created by us, not them, so it is in fact our responsibility to not walk away when it gets hard.
Take Rwanda for example: there were never any historic ethic differences before the Belgians came in and assigned them ethic labels (that never existed before) and the French exacerbated that fake division by endowing one side with power and disempowering the other. The Belgians removed the Rwandan King and both European countries installed their own corrupt power systems to benefit the Europeans. The French funded a genocidal regime and fanned the flames until it got too hot for them, and then they all pulled out as soon as soon as it got too bloody for them. Sadly, it's too often not other people's messes into which we're sticking our collective nose, but us not cleaning up the messes that we ourselves have made.
As for all that cash we're paying in taxes? We wouldn't have most of it if we hadn't pillaged many of these places for resources over the course of hundreds of years...
Thank you, Kristi, for a wonderful article and reminding us all of our responsibility to speak.
To Terry, who posted above, it might be one thing to "keep our giant collective nose out of other people's business" if it were their business from the start. Unfortunately, in most cases, the problems were created by us, not them, so it is in fact our responsibility to not walk away when it gets hard.
Take Rwanda for example: there were never any historic ethic differences before the Belgians came in and assigned them ethic labels (that never existed before) and the French exacerbated that fake division by endowing one side with power and disempowering the other. The Belgians removed the Rwandan King and both European countries installed their own corrupt power systems to benefit the Europeans. The French funded a genocidal regime and fanned the flames until it got too hot for them, and then they all pulled out as soon as soon as it got too bloody for them. Sadly, it's too often not other people's messes into which we're sticking our collective nose, but us not cleaning up the messes that we ourselves have made.
As for all that cash we're paying in taxes? We wouldn't have most of it if we hadn't pillaged many of these places for resources over the course of hundreds of years...
Thank you, Kristi, for a wonderful article and reminding us all of our responsibility to speak.
To Terry--The article is not asking for intervention, invasion, conversion, etc. It reminds us that if evil is banal, fighting it should be too. And wherever evil has been great, the scars are deep and long lasting, and humanity needs to be even greater.
Unilateral intervention is never the answer. Grassroots organization and local social movements need to lead the way.
But history has shown what happens when men and women stood by because the risks seem too high or because they thought their individual action could not make a difference.
Rendahl's article shows that it is not only iconic images of the Tank Man at Tiananmen Square that are worthy of inspiration to persist in the face of terror. It is also the work of men and women who believe in the difference they are making every day, in the face of the most cruel and severe retaliation.
I have broken up fights between married couples.
They always say some version of, "Everything's alright now. Thanks. We're okay."
And then they always go at it again later, more private, more vicious, more filled with primal hate than ever before.
I have broken up fights between kids gangs, and individual boys, as well as deer, geese, sheep, goats, bulls, chickens, snapping turtles, and others, all with the same resulting later hate-filled actions, just like the married couples.
One of the worst battles ever was between 2 doe deer in the wild woods who pummeled each other for hours with heads and feet, with only their 4 fawns (and me) for an audience.
Brutality in the extreme.
Nothing ever done to indigenous tribes by people of European heritage even comes close to what the various primative tribes do to each other.
And, you cannot stop them. They will have it out in their own way.
The profession of Doing Good only does good for the do-gooder. It allows her to pat herself on the back and feel good that she is doing good in the world.
Unfortunately, it is only a fakey feeling, and not factual.
The do-goodee has to suffer more than necessary in order for the do-gooder to get their personal buzz from the activity.
The more primative the tribes (or individuals), the more brutal the battles will be, the more unrelenting the hatred between them.
Let them have at it. They will anyway. Nothing anyone can do about it.
To become civilized, they must work through the levels.
"Human beings are members of a whole, in creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, other members uneasy will remain. If you have no empathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain"
-- Saadi-Sufi mystic poem
Thank you for this needed call to action. And for the reminder that opportunities to act and speak up for what is right are everywhere. If we are quicker to act and speak up at the first sight of trouble, we'll have less genocides and wars to which to respond.
And while I agree that it is easy for Americans to speak against human rights violations, I know it is also very easy for us to find excuses why not to do it. Terry's comments above are a good example of that. Excuses are abundant, always, but in the end, they are just excuses. Not the right thing to do. As simplistic as it is, this world would be a better place if we did unto others as we want them to do unto us. So, if we really want to stay out of it and let the "non-European tribes" sort it out by themselves, then lets not sell them the weapons, ammunition, contract for extraction of their mineral resources and train their guerrillas. Those keeping up with the world know this is impossible. We are all knee-deep into each other's business, but what we are lacking are the guts to stay there when the going gets tough.
Thank you America for the capture and conviction of weapons dealer/transporter Viktor Bout. Bout was actually convicted of conspiring to kill Americans, but his biggest crime was to accept blood diamonds as payment from Charles Taylor in return for selling Taylor thousands of tons of weapons. In fact, Bout was the model for the movie Lord of War, but Bout's terrible contribution to war crimes was best understood from the book, Merchant of Death.
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