H. Kallehauge, President of PTU - Speech at Institute of Human Rights, May 2007

An ordinary citizen belonging to the majority, living in a civilised society with good governance, with a reasonable low rate of criminality, no or only little corruption, and in a democracy, which is well functioning and a welfare society as well - such a citizen has no living personal experience of the need of Human Rights.

That is probably how most Danes will be thinking if they ever come to thinking about Human Rights.

It is just like the rule of law. Only a few are able to give a precise description or definition of what the rule of law means, but as soon as this fundamental principle is missing or is violated, we all immediately recognize that something is really wrong.

Human Rights are of the same nature. As long as they are respected and fulfilled we don’t even think about them, but when Human Rights are violated and especially if we are ourselves, the victims of such violations, we feel immediately how important they are.

It is in a way a good sign if members of a society are generally not much aware of the need of Human Rights, because it is an indication of respect and fulfilment of these rights. On the other hand a low awareness of the importance of Human Rights gives a risk that Human Rights violations, towards other groups than the majority, might pass more or less unnoticed.

It is a very precise description, which was given by the German Lutheran parson pastor Martin Niemüller, when he about the Nazi-regime said that when Gestapo took the Communists we did not care, when they took the Social Democrats we did neither, nor when they took some Catholics, and when they came to arrest me, it was too late to react.

So a constant vivid awareness about respect of the fundamental Human Rights is a demand to all of us as members of a democratic society. But how do we raise such awareness? Are we able to educate our neighbours, the total democratic constituency, to live up such an ideal awareness?

How do we avoid falling asleep because of an overwhelming status of good governance?

In the best world of all possible worlds - as Voltaire phrased in his book Candide - do we need eye-openers now and then?

Looking around at the global situation we certainly don’t lack shocking and highly alarming examples of Human Rights violations. On the contrary - there are plenty of them, - far more than there should be. But many of these examples are too shocking to make us identify our own lives with such atrocities as torture, genocide, political censorship and arbitrary use of death penalty.

If we had a little more imagination, empathy and knowledge about history it would not be so. But many people lack this insight and don’t even follow the news. If Human Rights violations do not involve their own existence right here and now, they are not reacting. How do we make them aware, that Human Rights violations are also something of their concern and responsibility?

The Danish cartoonist/artist Storm P. once made a drawing where two men stood talking and one of them said to the other: “What do you think about the present foreign policy situation?” And the other man answered: “Nothing - I have god a fly in my eye”.

We all have a bit of that narrow view or lack of outlook. It is however dangerous, not only to the world, but also to ourselves.

Human Rights are of course for all - but this is much more evident for members of minorities than for the majority living on the fat of the land. And in a democracy the power belongs always to the majority. Therefore the awareness about human rights has to be an integrate part of the conscience of the majority.

Human Rights - education of our children, both at home and in the school, is in this relation an important instrument, but in itself certainly not sufficient.

We have to mobilize both you and me about this issue. What do Human Rights mean? What they really mean do depend on:

• Who you are
• Where you live
• Which government and administration you live under
• Which group in society you belong to
• Which situation your country is in among others, politically, economically, developmentally, environmentally, ethically and from a religious point of view.

If we look back half a century or a little more on the homogenous Danish society during the German Occupation (1940-45) we certainly learnt a lesson. Even if we were lucky and were much better off than any other occupied territory during World War Two we still experienced a lot of Human Rights violations and infringements like:

• No freedom of speech, no free press and censorship
• The rule of law was not respected
• Persecution of the Jewish population
• Arrest and deportation of the Danish police force
• Various acts of terrorism like arbitrary executions of civilians from German police and their Danish support groups.

Just to mention a few examples. When the war ended there were a much higher awareness among the population at large than before about what good governance, democracy and respect of Human Rights mean. When the Danish constitution from 1953 was adopted it was clearly much influenced by the war and occupation experiences.

Of course I don’t recommend another occupation or similar catastrophic events as a tool to raise Human Rights – awareness, but only want to mention the occupation as an example, which lead to a very high general awareness about precious values as freedom, tolerance, national unity and Human Rights.

The World Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 is another example of something good which was a result of the atrocities of World War Two.

The Danish Institute of Human Rights has during the last two years taken the good initiative to campaign for a horizontal approach to Human Rights among the Danish NGO’s.

The NGO’s were from the beginning very reluctant towards accepting this new strategy. They all thought that nobody could be better at promoting their rights as women, disabled, elderly people and so on than themselves. It took time and good arguments to make us realize that a horizontal approach would have a synergy-effect enhancing our interests. But the group from The Danish Institute of Human Rights never gave up or lost the engagement and in January this year they succeeded and obtained an unanimous accept from the NGO’s to this new horizontal approach.

The greatest advantage obtained by the horizontal approach is, that if you understand the needs of one minority group being gender issues, mainstreaming of the elderly or persons with disabilities, discrimination of sexual minorities or xenophobia, you have at the same time a general idea what negative differential treatment means to all other groups. Any campaign for the rights of any minority group has therefore a positive side effect on all other minority groups.

In all families you will find a person belonging to a minority group and these family members are the potential eye openers for the other less well-known groups.

So the horizontal approach to Human Rights makes the recognition and respect of all human rights stronger and raises the general awareness of Human Rights among the total population.

I talk about minorities and include women, but of course women should not be called a minority. I admit that. But like it or not. Women are a majority group with minority symptoms and are therefore with good reason included in my reasoning.

The ordinary citizen who is well integrated does not feel any need for the protection of human rights until a situation of risk arises. It might be an armed conflict, a natural emergency or a personal crisis like an arrest or compulsive treatment because of mental illness. The borderline between the normality of a member of the majority, and the special needs of persons belonging to a minority group, is not an insurmountable wall but a condition, which can change overnight even if only few are aware of that.

My own experiences with human rights being a judge during day hours and an NGO as leader of an organization of persons with disabilities after court sessions, has given me the chance to try to live in two very different worlds. As a judge I belonged to the rules, the decision-making group, the leaders and as an NGO to those asking to be heard. My position changed every day when I left the bench. It has given me much, much insight and understanding of the difference between being upstairs and downstairs. It is an experience, which I would not have been without. I can recommend it as an excellent education for all who shall make decisions about the lives and welfare of other persons.

Let me end my remarks with a few words about the new convention about the rights of persons with disabilities. The convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on the 13’ of December 2006 and opened for signature on the 30’ of March this year. The disability movement has been waiting for such a legally binding international instrument for more than 25 years. We had a dream and now it has almost come true. We are now awaiting ratification and implementation of the convention.

The convention about the rights of persons with disabilities represents a paradigm shift. The convention makes it clear that we are not only entitled to enjoy all the same human rights as the rest of mankind, but it is the responsibility of the governments to implement these rights effectively. Before the convention we had to stand with our hats in hand bowing and asking if we could have access to the same world as that in which the non-disabled live - now after the convention we can point to our rights and ask when they are going to be fulfilled.

The disability movement has never asked for privileges, but only for equal opportunities and now we are going to get them by means of the convention. It has lasted a long time to come so far - too long time. But now we are near to the goal - the promised land of equal opportunities - without human rights we should never had come so far.