Today, the Portuguese Human Rights League – Civitas marks and celebrates the 72nd Anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Paris on 10 December 1948.
This document is still as current as on its proclamation date, on the aftermath of the 2nd WW and its devastating consequences to the populations, affirming that the “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,” and “it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”
Although it has no legal power and being considered as soft law, its principles of freedom and respect for human life and condition, Rule of Law and the humanist values it represents have resulted in international treaties, inspired and is consecrated in various national constitutions; and it, also, manages to shake several dictatorship regimes.
During dictatorship, the Portuguese Human Rights League was forbidden to debate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the base of the League) and its existence was consistently ignored by the Portuguese courts. Only on March 9th, 1978, was it existence published at the Official Gazette a notice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Despite of its diffusion and integration on the International Law (European and Portuguese), there is still much to do as to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights be a reality in Portugal. We will not stay put due to: the existing poverty; the lack of education access by all of those who seek for it; the lack of work offers and work conditions to many workers; the lack of access to a fair and fast justice; the flaws in accessing health care to all; the lack of transparency of the State organisms; the lack of acceptance of other differences (be it ethnical, sexual orientation, cultural or others) ;and the lack of so many values and fundamental rights, absolutely essential to a real and effective Rule of Law, with capability to offer opportunities and dignified life conditions to all.
The lack of reply from the Portuguese Government in all these areas, regardless the progresses reached since 1974, has contributed to the emerge of movements and discusses of nationalist, authority and repressive nature. Within the European Union, a project based on brotherhood, solidarity and peace amongst nations values, one has seen a few years back to the degradation of the Rule of Law in Poland and Hungary and to its consistent transformation in Repressive States where judges are appointed by the Government, where a dissonant voice on the governmental politics is silenced, including the journalists, where the right of the women, of the LGBTI+ community are silenced each day more and more and in constant attack, and where any foreign entity is seen with mistrust and in same case with hate.
European Union open the procedure of the article 7, of the EU Treaty against Poland in December 2017, and against Hungary in September 2018, based on the risks that these Member-States committed a serious violation against the based values on which EU is founded by, including the Rule of Law and the Fundamental Rights. However, the progress of these procedures, which lays on the European Council, has been slow in these last 3 years, allowing these countries to benefit the advantages of being part of a group of countries that are based on Human Rights, at the same time that seeks to mine and, that by allowing this degradation, one incurs on contributing to the fail of the EU own future.
There is still much to do but the League considers being opportune to remember that in 2020 is also celebrated the eighty anniversary of the heroic actions of the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who saved thousands of men, women and children, many of them Jewish from the Nazi claws, and the seventy-fifth anniversary of Nuremberg Trials, which result on the International Criminal Law and the International Criminal Court, justly remembered by the Projecto Nunca Esquecer (Never Forget Project) in memory of the Holocaust with several events under the Ministry of Justice, amongst others.
The best of Humankind and within the Portuguese, as the role of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, shall continue to be remembered as an example of higher sense and defense to all Mankind that all should be proud of.
The Portuguese Human Rights League – Civitas celebrates today the anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminding and reaffirming what is written down on its Preamble: it is everyone’s duty to defend the rights consecrated and the Law of Rule as an essential way to avoid the last resource that compels Humankind to fight against tyranny and oppression.
