Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee speech at the seventh meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum

Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s speech at the Seventh Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of the National Human Rights Institutions here today:

~I am pleased to be with all of you at this seventh meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of the National Human Rights Institutions. A warm welcome to our foreign guests. I hope that you will have a pleasant stay in our country.

The concept of human rights is deeply rooted in the core values of the great civilizations and religions that Asia cradled in antiquity and has nurtured over the centuries. These civilizations have stood the test of time because human dignity, welfare and man’s all-round progress have been their essential concerns.

India’s engagement with the rest of Asia has helped enrich our shared outlook towards life. Our national culture and ethos have always propagated human rights in the broadest sense of the term. They have upheld the values of peace, fraternity, balanced development and cooperation among different communities as the surest way of promoting the well being of all.

Long before globalisation became a reality, requiring nations and communities to accept certain common ethical principles for peaceful co-existence, our ancestors proclaimed the ideals of ~Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam~ (The whole world is one family) and ~Sarvepi Sukhinah Santu, Sarve Santu Niramayah (May all people be happy, May all people be healthy).

Thus, India’s understanding and advocacy of human rights are as universal as they are ancient. In modern times, this was manifested in our Freedom Struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the Constitution of India, human rights have been enshrined in the chapters on Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy. We have a vibrant parliamentary democracy, whose institutions closely scrutinize the functioning of the executive. We have a strong and independent judiciary. We are proud of our National Human Rights Commission, which we established in 1993 with requisite independence. Most States have also established State-level Human Rights Commissions.

These institutions, combined with a vigilant civil society and a fiercely free press, have complemented the good work being done by our superior courts to uphold the rights of our people.

Distinguished participants, the end of World War II has begun an era marked by the worldwide growth of three seminal ideas – Democracy, Development and Human Rights. The contemporary world, including the Asia-Pacific region, is driven by the complex interplay of these three powerful ideas. Under the force of these inter-related ideas, old mindsets are changing. New national, regional and international institutions have been created. Exchange of views and experiences has been taking place at an unprecedented level among governmental, semi-governmental and non-governmental agencies.

As a result, a strong awareness is taking root that we need to promote democracy, development and human rights in an integral and comprehensive manner.

Experience has also taught us that only genuine democracy and equitable development can ensure the fullest protection of human rights. Democratic societies are sensitive to popular aspirations. They have parliamentary institutions, media groups and non-governmental organizations, which jealously guard the liberties of citizens and mercilessly expose any shortcomings. Self-corrective mechanisms and remedial measures are automatically launched in the event of any human rights violations in these societies. Undemocratic regimes are less transparent and therefore far more prone to human rights abuses.

The quality of human rights is also gravely affected by stark imbalances and distortions in global development, both within and, especially, between rich and not-so-rich countries of the world. These imbalances deny equal opportunities, which is an essential condition for the fulfillment of human rights, for a large section of the world’s population. In their worst manifestation, these condemn hundreds of millions of the poorest people on earth to live in conditions of extreme want, devoid of any human dignity. For example,

Is it surprising that the largest number of disabled persons in the world are poor?

Isn’t it a fact that the largest number of people affected by the disastrous spread of HIV/AIDS are poor?

Is it difficult to know why almost all the trafficking in women and children is targeted at poor families?

These instances show that poverty is a major denier of human rights. It should, therefore, be our endeavour to deny poverty continued existence in the 21st century. For this, the deep developmental divide at the global and national levels must be bridged. This no doubt places definite responsibilities on individual governments in our region and elsewhere in the developing world. However, a far bigger responsibility for bridging the developmental divide rests on the industrialized nations of the world.

Unfortunately, the debate on human rights is often distorted by those who take a narrow and non-historical view of the matter. There are some who think that the idea of human rights is a foreign import into the Asia-Pacific region. They, therefore, arrogate to themselves the task of lecturing to developing countries on how we should promote human rights. Sometimes, this takes the form of interference in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.

It can also take the form of patronizing advice on how we need to make cultural adjustments to conform to world human rights standards. The recent debates on ‘Asian values’ illustrate an assumption that the cultural heritage of oriental civilizations is incompatible with today’s accepted code of human rights practices. We should reject such motivated theories.

There are also those who view human rights in the narrow sense of the functioning – or rather, individual instances of malfunctioning -- of certain organs of the state in relation to individual citizens or groups. In a civilized and law-governed society, there cannot be any justification for excesses and injustice perpetrated by the very State machinery whose duty it is to uphold justice. Without accountability, agencies of the State can misuse their authority and infringe the rights of citizens, especially those who are poor and weak.

Incidents of this nature must be checked and the guilty brought to book. As I have already mentioned, democracies have in-built systems to ensure this.

By the very nature of their transparency, violations of human rights are also more easily detected and highlighted in democratic polities. Human rights activists and institutions have to remain far more alert about the abuses -- and even atrocities – which are committed in undemocratic or superficially democratic societies.

However, the domain of human rights does not begin and end with such incidents. It covers a whole range of issues of social and economic development, political rights, entitlement to clean environment, and preservation of cultural identities.

Friends, the debate on human rights either in the global context, or in the context of the Asia-Pacific region, would be grievously incomplete without serious consideration of the threat posed by terrorism. All forms of terrorism are dangerous, but the one that is inspired by religious extremism is especially lethal.

Both the world and our region have witnessed a spurt in terrorist attacks in recent times. Our hearts go out to the nearly 200 innocent persons who died in the bomb blasts in the tranquil island of Bali in Indonesia.

I have just returned from a summit meeting with ASEAN countries in Cambodia. Terrorism was one of the main subjects of discussion at the summit.

Perhaps no country in the world has suffered the depredations of international terrorism as much as India has, and for so long a time as we have. In the past two decades, nearly 60,000 people have been killed in acts of terrorism in Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and elsewhere in our country. It baffles us when the killing of innocent men, women and children is justified in some quarters as ~freedom struggle~.

I do not need to elaborate on the resolutions of the United Nations, which have called all ~acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations~ as ~activities aimed at the destruction of human rights.~ They have rejected justification of terrorism for whatever consideration – political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious. Further, they have specifically prohibited any member country to allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities in another country, through financing, training, organizing, sending men and weapons for executing such attacks.

We have to recognize the truth that the single greatest enemy of human rights today is terrorism fueled by religious extremism. It strikes at innocent lives. It targets the symbols of our freedoms. As we have seen in Jammu & Kashmir, Northern Ireland, and other troubled spots, it has deprived entire generations of their birthright of normal existence, peaceful development, and economic progress.

Terrorist groups have international connections. They use the advances of technology and the openness of democratic societies to penetrate into ever newer areas. The battle against terrorism has to be fought with grit and determination.

We have sometimes to take tough decisions -- even infringing some of our freedoms and abridging some of our human rights temporarily -- to firmly counter terrorism, so that our future generations can live in peace and harmony.

It is incumbent on all the nations in our region and around the world to join hands to fight the menace of international terrorism. Respect for all faiths and protection of pluralism should be recognized as an obligation for all countries in the world. This obligation cannot be fulfilled merely by proclamations, declarations and acceptance of UN resolutions. Our actions at the national level, and our cooperation at the regional and global levels, must match the threat posed by international terrorism and religious extremism.

In summing up, I would say this. Human rights are no doubt a lofty concept. Their fulfillment for all the people in all societies is the ideal that we should aspire – and actively strive -- for. At the same time, all of us should be aware of the imperfect world we live in. The nature of imperfections may differ, but they exist in all countries of the world without any exception. This reality imposes practical difficulties in living by the ideal standards of human rights.

However, we could move closer to the ideal if our commitment to human rights is genuine -- not a mere rhetoric – and if governments and civil societies work together to create a new culture of respect for human rights worldwide.

With these words, I am pleased to inaugurate your conference and wish it success.

Thank you~.