Hope of Survival
 

Human rights are being violated nowadays without much concern of the United Nations. United Nations agencies may be aware of the tragic situation but are unable to act effectively, mainly because it lacks adequate power to act to remedy the situation when called upon. The UN lacks certain enforcement laws that leave her powerless and unable to intervene forcefully. There are over 27 million refugees and the number is on the rise daily; and millions more oppressed and displaced peoples, scattered all over the world. Destitute, they live in misery, as a result of corrupt governments, extreme nationalism, religious and racial discrimination.

Whether for economic, political or religious reasons, other natives in Islamic countries are seeking a way out of their misery; like the Baha’is of Iran, Mandaeans (Sabians) of Iraq, Copts of Egypt and Arab Christians of the Middle East. The aggrieved individual is either miserably impoverished, intellectually more independent and well off, or simply pursues a faith different from that of the state religion. Their motivation for leaving their country stems from their government’s lack of attention to their plight. Their governments remain ambivalent to secular constitutional reforms. Social justice, civil liberty and religious freedom remain absent or restrictive. Consequently, they smuggle themselves out into other more democratic countries as a last resort since corrupt governments ignore their human rights and welfare.

Millions of aboriginal peoples, spread all over the globe, are entitled, like the rest of the human race, to live as human beings in peace and dignity. They are part of the human race. They are members of this global community and the UN should treat them as such. The duty of the world community or advocates of the so-called New World Order are to urge the United Nations to legislate adequate laws and build an international force that will enable it to enforce its resolutions effectively. The UN would have the legal power to pass certain resolutions that would become binding on unrepentant rulers to provide constitutional protection for the indigenous nationals. Otherwise, let the UN free them from bondage and - ‘let the encroachers leave”.

In extreme cases, the UN may also be given the power to remove and reconstruct the political borderlines of repressive regimes that continue to oppress the indigenous natives, by committing violations of human rights, in defiance of the UN Charter and international laws.

There are certain countries that despite their defiance of the UN, and refusal to comply with its countless resolutions, continue to enjoy full membership and participation in decision-making and casting of their vote. The international community should impose time limit on governments of such corrupt regimes to clean up their act or those responsible be faced with indictment and tried by the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) at the Hague.

Otherwise, the UN would simply become an instrument in the hands of the powerful and the very rich, alternating between the big powers and the influential multinational organisations to achieve their objective whatever the human cost, as did the defunct League of Nations to the Assyrians and other aggrieved indigenous people. The League of Nations was brought under the thumb of the mandated powers. Which direction is the U.N. heading?

Nigeria is a graphic example. The heavy boot of the despotic military regime on the Ogoni tribe has devastated its people, in complicity with the greed of the multinational oil companies. They have ruined their farmlands, polluted their rivers and water resources, burned and destroyed their villages. The regime through its militias, under the guise of the so-called internal security forces, has hacked to death and maimed hundreds of the Ogoni men, women and children in full view and knowledge of the world, just because they are ethnically different, non-Muslim and dared demand their basic rights as rightful citizens of the country. This is a typical method of their military and one-party system, operating under pretence of constitutional democracy. They employ suppressive measures to subjugate and cower factions and sects that are different from them in culture and religion, applying the abhorrent millet provision of the Islamic (shari’ah) rule of law.

If the multinationals are ignorant of these facts then they are incompetent and should not be there. They should either mend their act, or stop their exploitation and pull out. The multinationals are as much responsible as the corrupt regimes for their greed and iniquities. The Ogoni people and those adversely affected because of exploiting their land and natural resources should be constitutionally protected and individually and directly compensated in cash and kind for their losses.

With the introduction of the Islamic Shari’ah Law as recently as this year, the future of the Nigerian Christians is bleak and their survival dim. Several Islamic regimes follow this inhumane pattern of behaviour. They apply it to all non-Muslim communities, sometimes nonchalantly, and at others, puffed up with an air of confidence and authority as being the future heirs and masters of the world. The UN needs to be empowered to enforce its resolutions forcibly to enable it to redress such abhorrent injustices.

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