Towards a Century for Human Rights

"The Faces of the Exodus"

Poverty, discrimination and social exclusion are the driving force behind the enormous waves of people displaced within their own countries or to far-off destinations. We must take decisive steps to protect minorities and other vulnerable groups, declares the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

GENEVA - If the twenty-first century is to be the century of human rights then it is absolutely vital that the battle for equality be won across the globe.

For too long the diversity of race and culture has been treated as a threat rather than a gift. And too often that threat has been met with racial contempt and conflict, exclusion, discrimination and intolerance.

Many parts of the world have witnessed an increasing incidence of migration and trafficking both within and between countries and regions. This has posed major human rights concerns.

Hundreds of thousands of people leave their place of residence in search of better living conditions, moving from rural to urban areas and from poorer to richer countries. However, many of these people face systemic discrimination or are being victimized by transnational organized crime networks.

Particularly troubling is the harsh treatment of children and the families of migrants, the incidence of fear and dislike of foreigners reflected in both the private and public sectors, and the treatment of trafficked persons as criminals for their irregular residence over which they have no control.

Such practices are of grave concern when they become institutionalized and are reflected in the actions of law enforcement officials or the judiciary.

The starting point for addressing the issue of racial discrimination against migrants - legal or illegal - is that they have the same human rights as any other person, including the right to life, the right to dignity and security, the right to just and favorable conditions or work, the right to health and the right to equal treatment before the law.

The entry into force of the International Convention on the Human Rights of Migrant Workers would be a major step forward in the efforts of the international community to protect migrants.

(Fourteen governments have already ratified the Convention, but another six must do so before it can go into effect.)

For victims of trafficking, the problems can be even more acute. They generally find themselves in a very precarious position. They have entered a country without proper documents, or the documents might have been confiscated, or destroyed by the trafficker.

The trafficked person is further forced to carry out activities which are often degrading, like prostitution, pornography, forced labor, or work in sweatshops. Such persons have a constant fear of deportation or penalization that often keeps them from complaining or seeking help in cases of violations or exploitation at the hands of the traffickers.

Every year hundreds of thousands of men and especially women and children are tricked, sold, forced or coerced into situations of exploitation from which they cannot escape. The development of the illegal trafficking of women and girls for prostitution on a large scale is a particularly alarming phenomenon that needs to be combated with all available means.

These practices become doubly exploitative when the irregular migrants or the trafficked persons belong to a particular race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin, in which case they are often subjected to physical violence and other violations of their rights.

The problem of trafficking is worldwide and growing. It is estimated that between 300,000 and 600,000 women are smuggled each year into the European Union and certain Central European countries. The practice is also widespread in Africa and Latin America.

Human trafficking is a violation on its own but it can include violations of a whole range of human rights. It is often the result of widespread poverty, discrimination, and social exclusion that ruin the lives and destroy the choices of many of the world's women, children and men.

The protection of minorities and other vulnerable groups and the strengthening of national capacity for their protection have been on the agenda of the international community for nearly a century now, but much remains to be done.

A group of core questions needs to be considered:

How can every country in the world recast its vision of national identity to embrace and encompass all parts or groups of the population, and give to everyone a stake in the future of her or his country?

How can we instill in every child, every human being, a sense of the oneness of the human family so that each person can have a sense of belonging to the whole and none would feel excluded?

How can we eliminate disparities in access to economic and social opportunities and thereby eliminate root causes of prejudice and discrimination?

How can each country establish institutions to monitor itself to detect potential problems and defuse them before they become serious?

How can we use the opportunities provided by modern means of communication and information to spread the messages of the oneness of humankind, of respect, tolerance, good-neighborliness?

Instead of allowing diversity of race and culture to become a limiting factor in human exchange and development, we must refocus our understanding, discern in such diversity the potential for mutual enrichment, and realize that it is the interchange between great traditions of human spirituality that offers the best prospect for the persistence of the human spirit itself.

* Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Copyright IPS.