On human rights in the Western world

I don't get to write as often as I used to, and that's mainly because I'm behind at school and even though I may want to write about a lot of topics, time does not permit. One of the issues I have been wanting to bring attention to is the state of human rights in the Western world today.

Yes, liberalism and respect for human rights is entrenched in the constitutions of Western countries: freedom of religion and expression, due process rights and all the rest. On a scale of human rights respecting nations these countries would indeed feature high up. But there appears to be what I would call a complacency, a self-assured attitude that everything is generally alright here, and it is always places far away - different cultures, different people - that have bad human rights records. Russia, China, the Islamic world, corrupt African dictatorships, but not Canada, the UK, or Germany, France, and the United States.

Let's take a look around. Starting with the US (but of course), and forgetting extra-judicial wars and all that for the timebeing, it suprises me that in this day and age, the American government and people continue to tolerate (and in the case of the former justify) something like Guantanamo Bay. What's worse is that there has been hardly a whisper from American lawyers and the US Supreme Court challenging the legality of the detention facility there.

One noteworthy emanation from the Supreme Court has been the rejection of the argument of the US government that detainees at Guantanamo Bay are legally outside US territory and therefore do not possess the constitutional rights they would if they were on US soil (Rasul v. Bush). Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has not considered the question whether the detention itself is legal, or whether the classification of detainees as 'illegal combatants' instead of 'prisoners of war' is valid.

Here in Canada, we are always ready to extol the praises of multiculturalism in Canadian society but forget the ever persistent issue of aboriginal rights. The aboriginal peoples continue in their marginalized existence in pockets and reserves, out of sight and most often out of mind. It's only when long standing problems like the Kashechewan water contamination matter become national scandals do we raise an eyebrow. Most Canadians, the highly educated included, know little about aboriginal history and issues, apart from superficial cultural tidbits and some sense of romanticized stories of persecution and survival.

Over to Europe, where riots in France are making headlines these days, a bubbling over of long standing racial divides and widespread discrimination in French society against non-European (primarily North African) immigrants. Another sign of French phobia of things non-French/non-European is the hejab ban that has been in effect for some time now and is backed by a majority of the French people and their representatives. True, it is part of an overall ban on overt religious symbols, but it is common knowledge that the ban was initiated in response to the Muslim headscarf phenomenon, and that it affects Muslims more than it does, say, Christians, who are able to wear religious symbols without them being conspicuous. A nation that enshrines discrimination against minorities so systematically is hardly an example of a liberal human rights respecting society.

Similar issues are to be found in neighbouring European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. An indication that this is an overall European attitude is the widespread objection amongst EU member states and their people towards the inclusion of Turkey into the union on the basis of religious differences, despite the fact that Turkey has had strong geographical and political ties with Europe for centuries.

It appears ironic for Western nations to chastise the Thirld World about human rights when they ignore deep-rooted rights issues at home. The West needs to seriously and honestly assess its own failures in the realm of human rights, and to own up not just to historical truths but also present day realities.