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IAF Egyptian Participants' Reports |
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Report on the Seminar on Civil and Human Rights from a Political Perspective Participant: Khulud Sabir Barakat Date: 29 November – 11 December 2009  Report :Twenty-one participants from all over the world – Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America – participated in the program. The workshop was held for 12 days covering an array of the most important topics and controversial questions related to human rights. We started with the human rights problems and the political climate in the various countries represented through working in groups on the regional agreements / conventions on human rights. After that we moved to discussing the concept of liberalism and its meaning to each and every one of us, as well as the main features of the concept and their relation to the basic concepts of human rights. The workshop also discussed the importance of human rights and the international mechanisms of protection of such rights. This provided the opportunity of learning from the various regional experiences and the connection to international criteria concerning human rights. A discussion on the universality of human rights versus the ideas of cultural specificity was held through a number of controversial issues: gender issues, religion-based laws (i.e. laws taken from the Muslim Sahria'h and their connection to the system of international law, freedom of thought and expression, and others. The question was: do they have limits? Do limits change from one society to the other? Perspectives of the participants changed according to the cultural background, and the experience of each country. This led to a discussion on the rule of law. How can the rule of law protect human rights criteria? What is the relationship between the rule of law and secularism? In groups we discussed the possibility of achieving the rule of law in a theocracy, especially given the variance in the role played by religion-based laws from one country to other. The program comprised a discussion of various economic and political rights: the right to education, the right to work, and the right to organization. The groups tried to determine the components of each of these rights from a liberal perspective; as well as the other rights that are connected to it; and the most prominent forms of violations of such a right in various countries. This led to a discussion of the concepts of basic economic and social development and their relation to the democratic values, as well as some studies and evidence that shows this link between democracy, development, and welfare. Various forms of discrimination were addressed as well (racial discrimination, discrimination against women in the field of politics and party work, and the like). We talked about their manifestations, means of dealing with them, possible solutions to overcome them, such as forms of "Affirmative Action” as the quota system in the legislative councils. We questioned whether such are appropriate liberal solutions or not? Many documentaries were shown about the violent violations and war crimes, and the means for dealing with such by the International Community, as well as the role that could be played by international protection mechanisms. The workshop tackled one of the main issues facing human rights workers, i.e. the reduction of the space for freedom for the achievement of security, especially with the growing waves of terrorism, and the exchange of hate and discriminatory discourse among countries. Around the issue we discussed emergency laws, censorship of the media and the right to information/ knowledge. All these issues were raised by the topic "Freedom versus Security", and the question which takes priority? Finally the workshop included a debate on two very controversial topics: the right of the pregnant mother to abortion (versus the right of the fetus to life), and the right of the individual to committing suicide or ending life (versus the right to life). Both sides exchanged convincing arguments. At the end of the session, each participant voted for a side. The workshop also included some very important visits related to human rights, such as the visit to the Military Academy, a Police Station in Erfurt, a concentration camp, and the Center for State Security Documents in former East Germany. The methodology of work was very much focused on the exchange of views and local experiences in the various countries represented. This approach was very advantageous because it made the workshop dependent on discussion and exchange of views on controversial human rights issues. This had a great impact on reviewing the issues that were dealt with as ipso facto, and helped produce a fresh look at such issues from new perspectives, especially after we were introduced to various international experiences, such as the prioritizing of human rights in each culture, and the rights most violated in each represented country. The main gain from this workshop is the light shed on some of the controversial issues that are hard to address: What happens when two rights are in conflict? When do we have to prioritize rights? What is the cultural and political background of human rights workers and how does if affect their work? All of these and more were questions posed in the mind and by the participants who are trying to find answers for them in their own societies and under their very special conditions surround their work in human rights. |
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Egypt : www.fnst-egypt.org
