VOL. 49, No. 1 HEAD OFFICE: MONTREAL, JANUARY 1968

International Year for Human Rights

THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the Declaration ofHuman Rights by the United Nations is being markedby a restatement of that ideal for the peoples of theworld.

In Canada, the lead is being given by the CanadianCitizenship Council, which in 1964 declared: "themaintenance of human rights should be the basicobjective of the citizens of Canada."

Sparked by the Canadian Citizenship Council, therehas been organized the Canadian Commission, Inter-national Year for Human Rights. Provincial com-missions have organized celebrations and studygroups; universities are contributing in their specialway -- McGill has set as its goal the establishment ofa Centre for the Study of Human Rights; schools willhave programmes on a par with those they used tomark Centenary Year, and the International Con-ference on Social Welfare has as its theme "HumanRights and Social Welfare."

The movement toward establishing human rights ona firm foundation is based upon this simple principle:everyone, regardless of race or geographical accident,is entitled to certain opportunities as a human being.

Concessions, however liberal they may appear, arenot rights. Rights are what man is entitled to, not whatsociety is willing to let him have. They belong to manbecause he is man. They have greater validity thanpolitics or any other invention of society.

The list of our rights as Canadians- legal rightsand rights by custom- would fill many pages. No-body in all history has been more free than we are now.

While boasting of this we act wisely in this year ofreassessment if we test our achievement against somestandard. Viscount Samuel provided this in his essayBelief and Action. The man who is fully free is one wholives in a country which is independent; in a Statewhich is democratic; in a society where the laws areequal and restrictions are at a minimum; in an eco-nomic system in which he has the latitude of a securelivelihood and assured comfort, and full opportunityto rise by merit.

We have the right to choose our religion and practiseit; the right to affiliate with the political party of ourchoice -- or to organize a new party; the right to thinkour own thoughts and speak our minds; the right ofassembly and association.

These are vital rights in a pluralistic society such asCanada’s, a society which contains and protects manyreligions, many philosophies, many ethnic groups, andmany different people experimenting with various ideasin different ways.

This year, commemorating the first attempt in his-tory to extend human rights to all mankind, givesCanadians an opportunity to appraise their own suc-cess. There is a fatal tendency in mankind to leave offthinking about a thing when it seems no longer doubt-ful. In the rapidly changing contemporary scene wefind it necessary to consider not only new rights neces-sitated by internal and external developments, but,most importantly, to keep in view the preservation ofold rights that have proven their worth.

Civil rights and liberties

There is room for confusion between "civil rights"and "civil liberties." The former is widely used to de-scribe private law rights between individuals, as wherethe British North America Act assigns jurisdiction tothe provinces over "Property and Civil Rights". Thelatter is encountered as a catch-all for public rightssuch as freedom of religion, speech, press, and so forth.

Canada has, as part of her heritage, a deep and fun-damental regard for civil rights, rooted in legal prec-edent and protected by the courts.

Civil liberties originated in protest by groups of in-dividuals against what they believed to be the actualor possible tyranny of the State. They have their rootsin the belief that the State exists for the benefit of theindividual rather than the individual for the benefit ofthe State.

Beyond the negative aspect of rights, confined topreservation of the individual against violation of hispersonal liberty, is a more positive view of the duty ofsociety. It seeks to create new opportunities for self-

development, encourage scientific research directedtoward human welfare, extend education, establish ahigh level of material welfare, and use the nationalresources for the benefit of all.

These are looked upon as human rights, supportedby an appeal to the ethical sense of humanity. AlfredNorth Whitehead wrote in Adventures of Ideas: "Solong as the Galilean images are but the dreams of anunrealized world, so long they must spread the infec-tion of an uneasy spirit."

Human Rights

We take many rights for granted, not noticing themunless someone interferes with them. That is whywritten codes of rights are important and comfortingto have, although not all rights can be covered in eventhe most exhaustive bill of rights. There are values,goals and ideals that are found in the traditions andthe collective conscience of people.

Even written rights have degrees of worth. A "dec-laration of rights" states principles but is not law; a"bill of rights" is, properly, a statement of law en-forced by punishment of those who transgress. Whena bill becomes an Act of Parliament or of a legislatureit has independent vitality. It is a document to whichappeal can be made in law, and not merely an ex-pressed hope.

Statutes of rights need to be reappraised at intervals,because freedoms change and new aspects of freedomdevelop. They should be expressions of values, avoid-ing narrow specifications which might actually limitfreedom by the very process of defining it.

A bill of rights should speak for those without status,without power, and often without voice. To do thiseffectively it needs to be more than a solemn affirma-tion of democratic beliefs: it needs sanctions. A tooth-less bill may be worse than no bill at all. Human naturebeing what it is, some people will not acknowledgehuman rights unless they are compelled to do so.

A bill of rights should take note of the possibilitythat rights may be infringed in indirect ways. A cityby-law prohibiting the distribution of pamphlets with-out permission places freedom of speech and of thepress under police censorship. The refusal of a news-paper to accept advertising of a political meeting inter-feres with the right of a citizen to choose governmentfreely. Some laws aimed at disliked organizations andinstitutions may take away the rights of all of us.

Most of the fundamental rights are protected inCanada by law or custom; our faults are in adminis-tration and enforcement. To improve this, there hasbeen proposed a system of ombudsmen to check ad-ministrative arbitrariness and discriminatory action.Several provinces have taken up the idea, in the ex-pressed hope that citizens will be equal not only beforethe law but also with the administrators. Ontario hasits Human Rights Commission, which is kept busy notonly in investigating alleged infractions but in spread-ing education about legal rights.

When he delivered his final public address as Com-missioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police be-fore taking up his duties as ombudsman in Alberta,G. B. McClellan said significantly: "I am convincedthat the firm guarantee of the inviolability of the hu-man person, both physically and mentally, must be oneof the major foundation stones for the building on thisearth of anything resembling a civilized society."

The only safeguard of individual or group humanrights is a sound and vigilant public opinion, coupledwith the determination to carry into effect the con-victions that people hold. The human race continuesto be faced by the wide gulf between profession andpractice. No rights are automatic or forever safe: thatis why intelligence should never slumber. Whether welike it or not, we are all involved in the preservation ofhuman rights.

Freedom and rights

The word "freedom" continually appears duringany discussion of human rights.

It simply is not true, as immoderate people wouldhave us believe, that we have no choice between thelawless and reckless exercise of private license and astrait jacket of absolute conformity with no leeway forthe exercise of responsible judgment.

We have freedom to move within an orbit as wideas, but no wider than, what is compatible with thepreservation of the over-all harmony of relationshipson which effective living and survival depend.

Our clamorous love of liberty stems almost entirelyfrom hatred of compulsion. Liberty for the slave meanssimply freedom from his bonds. Freedom to somemeans merely having escaped from something: prison,a system of government, or an unpleasant environ-ment. We should ask ourselves: "What is my rulingthought?" In the context of human rights it shouldnot be merely a desire for freedom to do what we wish,but a conviction that no human being should be forcedto do what is against his will or his principles.

We are responsible individually for how we use ourfreedom and how we extend freedom to others; weare equally responsible, in a civilized community, toprevent harm to others, and in that responsibility weare accountable to society.

History teaches us that we shall never attain to per-fect human rights, any more than we shall ever attainto perfect goodness, because, apart from our humanfrailty, as fast as we progress we get a wider percep-tion of human possibilities, a higher idea of goodness.

The political and social state of man never rests.Every problem which Plato discussed 2,300 years agois still alive today, and we have added new problemsalong with our changes in the material conditions ofhuman existence.

Rights need vigilant attention amid the developingcomplexities of modern life. Young people- thatgeneration which has received its high school or uni-

versity education in the sixties -- have the right to beheard from, and adults have the responsibility to listen.People brought up alongside computers have newideas about their personal role, and possibly about theextent and force and nature of human rights.

We live in the midst of a "revolution of rising ex-pectations". People have come to entertain new ex-pectations about the things they should have a chanceto do and enjoy and theplace they should rightfullyoccupy in their societies. Every one of a democracy’sfundamental principles commits it to welcoming thisinterest by young human beings in the lives to whichthey may aspire.

Democracy and rights

There is no record in history of a government notdemocratically organized and controlled which hasrespected men’s rights. Democracy has produced asynthesis of natural law and freedom, and is in processof showing its capacity to cope with changing con-ditions.

The principles observed in democracy comprise, inbroad terms, the ideals of the good life. They are listedin Civics and Citizenship:

All human beings have absolute worth regardless ofrace, religion, or material possessions;

Reason and conscience are essential guides to humanbehaviour;

Human beings possess fundamental equalities whichmust be respected;

Freedom, limited only by moral responsibility andsocial justice, must be forthcoming to all human be-ings.

There are problems associated with human rights,but the nature of democracy enables it to manage com-plexity. Its citizens need the inner gristle, and the edu-cation, habits and courage, that make democracywork. Its patriotism expresses itself as a share in thecollective life of the nation.

The key to effective working of democracy is itsdeep respect for human personality, extended impar-tially to every member of society. It draws much of itsstrength from religions which affirm the sanctity of theindividual and the brotherhood of man. It lives in thehearts of men and women, and if it dies there thenno constitution, no law, no bill, can save it.

There is solid ground for accepting differences be-tween people and their thoughts and beliefs, because itis humanly impossible to know all the facts about any-thing. It is childish for a person to behave as if he werethe only thinking person, or the most honest thinkingperson, in the world. It is also an act of bigotry to ad-here blindly to one’s own opinions.

Racial and religious intolerances have always beenhateful and destructive, but they are particularly ob-structive in a world trying to cope with events and de-velopments which should draw people together in mu-tual help and protection. What is needed is to diffuse

a compassionate, personal, supportive warmth: thepurest expression of social feeling.

Rights of minorities

One of the most lively difficulties in making the ob-servance of human rights effectual is raised by thespecial situation of religious, ethnic, language, andother minorities.

What is needed in applying the rules of hum~in rightsis that in addition to the principle of majority rulethere should be recognition by every group in societyof the legitimacy of minority group interest, provided,as Sidney Hook wrote in The Hero in History: "thegroup in question accepts the methods of free inquiryand democratic decision as principles of negotiatingconflicts of interest."

Majorities should be generous and gracious. Theycan spoil their goodness if, while admitting that ittakes all sorts of people to make a world, they say itas though they find it a regrettable thing. On the otherhand, minorities should beware lest insistence uponrights should become a hammer by which affection isbeaten to death.

The fundamental cause of group and class conflictis the attitude of superiority on the part of one groupor class toward another. It is essential that minoritiesbe encouraged to take part in the common life of thecommunity, whatever customs and cultures they wishto preserve among themselves, and that they be wel-comed warmly by the majority. Nothing is so dull andfrustrating as to be encased in self; nothing so exhil-arating and satisfying as to direct attention and energyoutwards.

We need to give room in our democracy for what isindividually unique m one another, remembering with-out ill-will that what is one man’s meat is anotherman’s sacred cow.

The reception of refugees brings this need promi-nently to the fore. The Office of the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Refugees is trying to meet thedisplaced person problem by providing internationalprotection, by repatriation, or by assimilation withinnew national communities.

Fifty countries are parties to the convention whichprovides for minimum standards of treatment forrefugees.

Democratic responsibility

Thinking about human rights should develop incitizens a sense of their human responsibilities. Youcannot expect disinterested activities, spaciousthoughts, and clear vision to arise in people who nor-mally put their personal comfort above the necessitiesof their environment. To enjoy human rights theymust deserve them by caring deeply about the rightsof others.

An exercise in benevolent oratory will not fulfil the

obligations of this International Year for HumanRights. There needs to be action and follow-up. It is atime to take sides, to stand up, to be heard, to exertinfluence and effort, to perform. As William C. Han-kinson, President of the Canadian Citizenship Councilin Prince Rupert, wrote: "Do things which need to bedone, render service where service is needed. Havedone with fanciful flights into the wild blue. There isfar too much fiddling while citizenship problems burnhot all around us."

The truth is that a person may cause evil to othersnot only by his actions but by his inaction, and he isjustly accountable in both cases. Duty is a common,collective faith, and every man is under obligation tofulfil his contract with democracy.

The Golden Rule was the life guide of the stone-ageEskimos, and it has not been improved upon as a guidefor the most sophisticated democracy. It applies toevery person, whether he is rich or poor, whether heagrees with us or not, no matter what his race or thecolour of his skin. In the new world which is cominginto existence, this is not only a moral duty but an in-dispensable condition of survival.

The United Nations lead

The Charter of the United Nations which was for-mulated at San Francisco in 1945 was a great humanachievement. It could never have been reached if thenations, both great and small, had not been willing togive up some portion of their prestige and self-interestfor the sake of the greater interest of the world. Inevery line of the Charter there is implicit a concessionby one or more of the fifty nations which created it.

They were, in the opening words: "The peoples ofthe United Nations" -- agents of mankind to build anorderly and peaceful way of life. They went on topledge themselves "to take joint and separate actionin co-operation with the organization" for the pro-motion of "universal respect for, and observance of,human rights and fundamental freedoms."

It was natural, then, that by 1948 the United Nationsshould have codified and proclaimed the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration is without binding force. It restsupon the aroused conscience of the people. Neverthe-less, it heralds a new era in the history of mankind. Itinspires us to live up to principles universally ac-claimed, and universally needed.

From the United Nations, initiative passed to thenations separately. While the provinces of Canada hadmany enactments safeguarding individual rights, itwas not until 1960 that a federal Bill put into one docu-ment the belief of this country in the inherent dignityand the equal and inalienable rights and fundamentalfreedoms of all persons.

The Bill of Rights, adopted unanimously in theHouse of Commons, affirms substantially on behalf ofCanada what was said in the United Nations Declara-

Authorized as second class mall by the Post Office Department,Ottawa, and for payment for postage in cash.

tion, but it does not give us liberty to go to sleep. Itdoes not protect our rights forever. Future laws maytake away the declared freedoms; provincial legis-latures have some jurisdictions in the fields covered,and this Bill runs only in the federal field; laws madepreceding adoption of the Bill may apply.

In addition to seeking uniformity of Acts ensuringhuman rights in the provinces and federally, Canadaneeds to provide for enforcement. It has also someunfinished business in the human rights area. Someneeds were set forth by a committee of the PlanningConference on Human Rights for consideration in thisanniversary year: Equal and effective access to edu-cation for both children and adults; relationship be-tween economic well-being and the rights and dignityof persons; equality of women and men; institution ofeffective machinery for the investigation, prevention,and redress of inequalities in the administration ofjustice; extension of human rights legislation and en-forcement methods throughout Canada; full partici-pation of Indians in the political, economic and socialaspects of our society.

Several matters covered in the Universal Declarationdo not appear in the Canadian Bill: Social protectionof children; the right to work and to be protectedagainst unemployment, equal pay for equal work ona just and favourable scale; the right to leisure andpaid holidays, and "the right to a standard of livingadequate for the health and well-being of himself andof his family."

Canada’s problemsThe problems in human rights that Canada faces

today, although they are heavy, are not so muchburdens as invitations to achievement.

A start has to be made. A Frenchwoman was toldabout the miracle of the martyred St. Denis, firstbishop of Paris and patron saint of France, who walk-ed five miles carrying his head under his arm. She said:"The distance was not important; it was the first stepthat counted."

Recognition was given by the nations of the worldtwenty years ago to the fact that every human beinghas a right to the means that are necessary for thedevelopment of his life in a way that is best for thehighest good of the community of which he is a mem-ber. Then he is under the obligation to use the meansin the best way for the attainment of this end.

It remains to give effect to the principles that wereenunciated. Meantime, we remain in a dusky, debat-able land, in which the virtues have a twilight dimness.We are not uncertain about their validity, but we arehesitant about acting to make them effective.

The anniversary of the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights may raise a beacon around which pub-lic opinion may mobilize itself to compel action bylegislatures and governments that may make the rightsobligatory. Then this expression of the collective con-science of the world can be ignored only at one’s peril.

4 pRm’XEV IN CANADA