MUHD AIDIL & LAI FENG JUN
Third Year NUS Law, Deputy Editor, SLR & First Year NUS Law, Secretary, SLR respectively

The atrocities committed during the Second World War made the flagrant disregard for human life and dignity painfully apparent and it was thus decided that a universal declaration was much needed to protect human rights and to acknowledge it as a global concern – a move welcomed by a world recovering from the ravages of war. Come December 2008, 60 years will have passed since the vision of sanctified and protected human rights was concretised with the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the world will celebrate with commemorative activities organised  by groups of likeminded individuals from each member state.

In Singapore, a group called U60SG has been taking the lead in organising the activities. Its objectives are two-fold:  first, to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the UDHR and the progress that it has made so far in the field of human rights, and second, to raise awareness of human rights in Singapore through their various U60SG activities. Their activities include a multi-disciplinary talk on human rights, a youth forum, a film festival, story-telling sessions with children, as well as a roving educational exhibition to educate the public on various aspects of the articles in the UDHR. All these will be held at the National Library and they aim to help Singaporeans gain a better understanding of the history of the international human rights movement, its various facets, as well as how our legislation has (or has not) incorporated these ideals into our laws.

U60SG organises its activities on an inclusive basis, allowing other parties to hold complementary events under its auspices. In August 2008, the Law Society organised a series of talks on Human Rights and established a Public and International Law Committee which seeks to “promote the study and understanding of public law and public international law and to develop awareness of the extent of the application of public international law in Singapore”. NUS Law Faculty’s Pro Bono Group will also be organising similar educational events and activities, which include an interesting and novel method of blogging on a “right of the day” every day for 30 days from 6 November 2008 to 5 December 2008.

It is the fundamental principle that human rights are an intrinsic part of our lives-even if we are unaware of it-which motivates U60SG. As U60SG’s Co-Chairperson, Ms June Lim, rightly points out, “Human rights is the reason why we get to go to school (right to education), the reason why women can expect equal pay for the same jobs as men, and the reason why there are intellectual property rights.” For example, one’s right to education free from discrimination is guaranteed under Article 16 of our Constitution, although it is interesting to note that this is not an absolute guarantee of one’s right to education. With the authorities’ recent decision to allow public protests at Hong Lim Park being a possible indicator of how Singapore’s attitude towards the freedom of speech has finally come of age, U60SG is hopeful that this momentum will prompt Singaporeans to take a more active interest in human rights.

However, amidst the fanfare, there seems to be something missing at the heart of it all. Are the celebrations merely “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”? After all, Singaporeans are known to be a pragmatic bunch who take little interest in advocating abstract ideals. As Ms June Lim concedes, it is unrealistic to “expect tangible results from the U60 celebrations”, but it is also impossible to talk “about the promotion and protection of human rights [unless] the general public has an idea of what human rights are in the first place”. The general mindset of the people that human rights is neither something close to heart nor important is precisely the reason for all the fanfare, which seek to, at the very least, arouse people’s awareness and interest in human rights. A society is shaped by its laws – more importantly, the values, aspirations and goals of any society find expression in its Constitution. Our laws have yet to completely incorporate the ideals of UDHR but in the spirit of the U60SG celebrations, we can always hope.