Liekuut | Alette Smeulers: 'Human rights violations are also about us'

In ‘Liekuut’, which is the Groningen dialect for straight ahead or straightforward, we regularly share the perspective of one of our academics on a topical issue. In this way, we show how UG researchers are contributing to the societal debate.

'The Middle East is ablaze, a war is raging in Eastern Europe, and the US elected an extremely unpredictable president who is undermining democracy: human rights are under pressure. Those rights are not political, but we do make the choice on a political basis whether or not to speak out, which we do in the case of Russia, but not in the case of Israel.’ That is a dangerous thing, says Alette Smeulers, Professor of International Crimes. ‘If we allow governments not to comply with treaties, there will soon be no rule of law to protect us.’

Sovereign

‘After the Second World War, we said that human rights should be on the international agenda, that they should be internationally recognized, and we established them in treaties. The purpose of those treaties is to curb the absolute power of leaders and protect citizens from their leaders. But international law is also based on the idea that states are sovereign. The UN is not a supranational government and it can only act through the UN Security Council in very exceptional cases — namely when international peace and security are at stake. As a result, the effectiveness of human rights treaties depends on our commitment to adhering to them and the goodwill of the UN Security Council to act, but is it problematic when there are leaders who do not care so much about those human rights.’ 

Some are more equal than others

So, the above implies that we should also speak out and act through the UN when that is not happening in some places, yet we do not do that consistently. We live in a world of survival of the fittest, where powerful leaders can disregard human rights because other states do very little to prevent it. The choice to speak out and intervene or not is a political one, depending on who our political allies are. Western countries boast of being champions of human rights and democracy, but then apply double standards. Human rights treaties say we are all equal, but it turns out that some are more equal than others.’ 

Tampering with the rule of law

‘Apart from human rights violations — which in themselves are bad enough — we are also putting ourselves at risk by looking away. It undermines human rights and the credibility of Western society as a whole, the international legal system, and the UN. It is making the violation of human rights by others easier too. And while it doesn’t affect us now, that could change in the future. It reminds me of Martin Niemöller’s text, and I am paraphrasing here: ‘first they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew, then they came for the communists, the social democrats, the trade unionists, and each time I did not speak out because they did not come for me. When they came for me, there was no one left who could protest.’ 

From bad to worse

‘Human rights violations go from bad to worse. And the longer you wait to stop it, the harder it becomes. There are plenty of examples from the Second World War or, in fact, just before that. For instance, rules about where Jewish musicians were allowed to sit in the orchestra — only in the back. Are you not speaking out against that? Then, with the second rule — which prohibited them from playing at all — it became even harder to oppose. And the third, and so on. After all, if you only take a stand at the fourth rule, you actually admit that you should have done so much earlier.’

Taking a stand is not a political thing to do

‘In Gaza, 43,000 people have now been killed, according to conservative estimates. Many people can somewhat understand that after the terrible attack by Hamas, Israel wanted to do something to protect itself. But even such an attack does not justify the current violence. And of course the violence did not start on 7 October. A year has passed, and the question arises: when will it stop? Who will stop this terrible violence? On top of that, in the case of Israel, the situation is being perceived as extremely sensitive and political. Whereas human rights are objective, and taking a stand against human rights violations is not political, it is the fundamental basis of the rule of law.’ 

The situation is already out of control, but we can still do the right thing. 

‘There are moments we can seize, such as a decision by the International Court of Justice, an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, or a report from Amnesty International. Those moments change the dynamics and bring opportunities for insight. Let us look at that as an indication that we are doing the wrong thing. It is always too late if you haven’t done it at the beginning, but that is no reason not to do it anyway. ‘

Read more:

• Alette Smeulers
• Overview of all 'Liekuut' opinion pieces