In this short article, I just wish to glorify ‘human rights’ for being part of human life. If it were not for human rights, the world would be subjected to chaos, brutality, continuous disorder and survival of the fittest. This would have reduced humans to savages. It would have given force to terror, inhumane treatment and never-ending war. ‘human rights’ as divine and human ideals reign supreme over all societal phenomena. Few scholars in the human rights movement will be quoted to just highlight how high human rights are. How all other societal phenomena should kowtow before it.

As a start, Henry Steiner & Philip Alston said, in describing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as the leading reference instrument of human rights, that, ‘it is the parent document, the initial burst of enthusiasm and idealism, terser, more general and grander than the treaties, in some sense the constitutions of the entire movement – the single most invoked human rights instrument’. The Harvard Law Professor took the baton, Mary Ann Glendon argued, ‘The Declaration is already showing signs of having achieved the status of holy writs within the human rights movement’ – these are profound pronouncements that place human rights above almost everything. The highness of human rights can be attributed to its connection to the idea that is it God-Given – is inalienable – cannot be forfeited. Men and women are born with these rights and it is because of their humanness they possess them. That’s how high human rights is. Professor Laski supported this view, that, ‘rights are those conditions of social life without which no person can seek to be him or herself at his or her best’.

Rene Cassin, the author of the first draft of the UDHR and a leading jurist, reported that, after the adoption in 1948, the then President of the Assembly, Mr. Herbert Evatt of Australia echoed, ‘millions of men, women and children all over the world will turn for help, guide and inspiration to this document’ – this shows the level of importance the Declaration holds. Rene went on to describe human rights with a powerful tone, that, ‘human rights are based on mankind’s increasing demand for a decent, civilized life in which the inherent dignity of each human being will receive respect and protection. This idea reaches beyond the comforts and convenience that science and technology can provide. We do not speak merely of biological needs when we talk about rights; we mean those conditions of life which allow us fully to develop and use human qualities of intelligence and conscience and to satisfy our spiritual needs. Human rights are fundamental to our nature; without them, we cannot live as human beings’. To deny such rights, Rene said, ‘is to set the stage for political and social unrest – wars, hostility between nations and groups within a nation’.

The ‘highness,’ of human rights inspired Constitutions the world over to largely reference the UDHR, its twin covenants (ICCPR and ICESCR) and other continental and regional human rights instruments in their Bills of Rights Chapters and Provisions.

Thus, from the Babylonian Hammurabi Code to the Magna Carta, The Manding Charter, the English Bills Of Rights, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of the French Revolution of 1789 and the American Bill of Rights are all ancient legal instruments that recognize the higher status of human rights at a time the world was not exposed to a lot of these rights. All these instruments demonstrate that human rights are the bedrock on which our society stood since time immemorial.

As such, to respect, protect and fulfil such rights is a duty upon the governors and the governed as well in some respect. Such have and will continue to save our societies, nations and continents from so much confusion they are facing.

This is how HIGH human rights are.

Sheriffo Jobarteh