Human Rights, we can't do without

Franklin Delano Roosvelt
Franklin Delano Roosvelt

 

I feel very honored to be invited to speak at this graduation ceremony for students at the Integrated Human Rights course, organized by the Integrated Human Rights Education team and the Foundation University. 

 

As a counselor and a pastor at the World House I am continuously fighting for the rights of undocumented migrants and former asylum seekers.

 

Since about six years the World House team is trying to empower our visitors in claiming their rights, by organizing a monthly training. We have been inviting lawyers on aliens rights, the police on the issue of the right to report a criminal offense, a general practitioner on the rights to get access to health care, and so on. The empowerment program at the World House has been extended by our visitors themselves. The Faces of the World activities at Wednesday evenings are a fine example of how undocumented people are able to organize debates on human rights issues. Two of the graduates, being present here today, had the opportunity to follow this extensive course on integrated human rights, and I am very proud of how they are bringing into practice what they have learned over here. The International Declaration of Human Rights does not only ask countries to protect the rights of documented civilians, but is talking about the rights of any person who came to a country as an asylum seeker, a migrant just as well as a tourist.  I would like to draw your attention to the four most important human rights that we know as the ‘four freedoms’, that have been the beginning of all other human rights:

 

1. the freedom of religion

 

2. the freedom of speech

 

3. the freedom from fear

 

4. the freedom from want

 

It has been the late president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, who described these four freedoms as basic human rights that never should be violated. We have to admit that these four freedoms have not been fully accomplished in any country . Not even in the Netherlands, with its longstanding tradition of tolerance and social justice. I would like to give two examples of freedom being violated in the Netherlands, when we talk about the rights of undocumented people. There is no freedom from fear. Too often undocumented people are being arrested without any reason. They had not committed a crime, but were arrested by the police after being asked to show their identity papers and taken into aliens detention. If there is ‘a reasonable suspicion of illegal stay’, the police may ask someone to show his ID. But too often suspicion seems to be related to the colour of someone’s skin. 

 

Of course everybody without a legal stay in this country should be aware of the risk to be stopped by the police if one does not have a valid ticket in the public transport, if someone is riding a bicycle at night without a working light at front or back, or driving a car that has been reported as being stolen.

 

In my radio program on RaZo I often use these examples to warn undocumented people to be aware of the risks they might be taking if they are being spotted by the police in those areas where criminal activities might take place, such as the ‘red light district’, coffee shops, or at big events.

 

There should be freedom from fear. But too often we see basic human rights being violated or being undermined. Such as the plans to put illegal stay into the law as a criminal offense. After a long discussion in parliament these plans have not been put into practice, but it made Dutch people being scared of helping undocumented people and made people from migrant communities being scared to support their own countrymen. Or gave them an opportunity to exploit and abuse undocumented people, by asking a higher rent for a room, or refusing to pay undocumented workers their wages, as they would be too scared anyway to report it to the police.

 

There should be freedom from fear as well if undocumented people are being put in aliens detention. But I have heard too many stories from detainees that they have been treated badly by the personnel and being put in isolation without a reason. Recently Amnesty International and Doctors of the World published a report on this matter. And I heard too many stories from people that they are being intimidated by people from DT&V, the governments return program, that they will take care of having people being deported to their country of origin. There should be freedom from want. But I see too many undocumented people suffering, being deprived from elementary needs as the right to shelter, food and clothing. Last year the Protestant Church in the Netherlands fetched an official complaint against the Dutch State, that it is denying these fundamental rights to vulnerable undocumented people.

 

This complaint was based on reports from the World House, and prepared by two lawyers and presented by the Conference of European Churches to the European Committee on Social Rights of the Council of Europe. In October last year the ECSR came with an immediate measure, urging the Dutch government to respect this freedom from want, specifically for undocumented people.

 

It has not paid out yet, as the secretary of State, Mr. Teeven, ignored this ‘immediate measure’ as one that didn’t have to be implemented, as it wasn’t yet a definite decision. 

 

Some pressure from the Amsterdam churches on the mayor of Amsterdam had as a result that he allowed some 150 former asylum seekers to get shelter  in a former detention centre at Havenstraat, the Refuge Harbour. But more less lucky ones are staying in a garage at Kralenbeek (the Refuge Garage), and some houses at the Ten Kate market (the Refuge Market) without any governmental support.

 

There is still no freedom from want for many other undocumented people in Amsterdam. Since one month undocumented people with HIV, from Ghanaian, Nigerian of Latin American origin, fear to go back to their country, as the medication they are using is not available in their country. The decision that they are supposed to be able to go back is based on a bizarre report from a doctor of the Immigration authorities. First he reported that all general hospitals and private clinics would be able to offer the necessary medical assistance. When it was proven that there was no treatment possible in the general hospitals, he stated that it was still possible in some private clinics. After proving that this was a lie as well, he declared that it would be possible to order the necessary medication from a pharmaceutical company in the United Kingdom.

 

So the medication would become available…

 

That nobody would be able to afford to pay for the medication (1.200 dollars a month, with an average income of 100 dollars a month) was not the IND’s or the government’s problem. If in principal the medication is available, it is available, regardless if it is affordable…

 

Ghanaian, Nigerian and Latin American people with HIV have the choice between having no freedom from want in the Netherlands or in their own country. 

My appeal to governmental institutions to respect the ‘four freedoms’ is not based on Human Rights alone. In my Christian tradition my freedom is connected with the freedom of others.

 

And my calling as a pastor and my work as a counselor is being based on a text from the Gospel according to St. Mathew, in which I hear the words of Christ: ‘I was hungry and you didn’t feed me, I was thirsty and you didn’t give me something to drink, I was a stranger and you didn’t give me shelter,  I was naked and you didn’t give me clothing, I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ It comes from the story of the ‘final judgment’ . It’s being addressed to the nations of the world. Not just to an individual person, but to the ‘united nations’. You know their answer: ‘When did we see you in this poor situation?’ And the answer was: ‘What you refused to do to one of my humblest brothers and sisters, you refused to do to me.’ You don’t need the Bible to have a calling to brotherhood. You don’t need the Universal Human Rights either to do so. It is founded in your own heart. Or it is notEleanor Roosevelt, indeed, the wife of the late president Franklin Roosevelt, wrote about 70 years ago: ‘Where do the universal human rights begin? At small places, close to home. That close and that small that they can’t be found on any map of the world. But those places are the world of individual people. The Neighborhood in which they live, the school they visit, the factory, farm or office where they work. If these rights have no importance over there they have little importance anywhere else.’ 

 

But at least you graduates are all well prepared by this Integrated Human Rights Education. You know what your rights are. And you are able to proclaim them, defend them, explain them and bring them into practice. You have become stronger than before. May God bless you in all your efforts to proclaim the Human Rights issue. Until it will not be necessary any longer. When all the nations admit  that freedom from fear and want is no longer a principle but is brought into practice.

 

Cor Ofman

text of the speach, being held on June 28th 2014 at the Integrated Human Rights Graduation of the Foundation University in Amsterdam