Global Human Rights and World Justice System
By Justice Katju
I have been asked by one Rizwan Shah to write on the above topic.
First we have to understand what does the expression ‘human rights’ means.
In my opinion we should not confine ‘human rights’ to mean political and civil rights like liberty, equality, freedom of speech and expression, religious freedom, etc. It should include socio-economic rights, e.g. the right to employment, the right to get nutritious food, medicalcare, good education, housing, etc.
Poverty is destructive of all rights. Liberty, freedom of speech, etc are meaningless and illusory for a man who is poor, hungry or unemployed. This was realized by then US President Franklin Roosevelt who in his State of the Union Address on 11.1.1944 said that the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution was clearly inadequate, and a Second Bill of Rights granting socio-economic rights to the US people was necessary, otherwise the former was illusory.
I am not denying the importance of civil rights like liberty and freedom of speech. But these become relevant and necessary only after the socio-economic rights are available to the people, otherwise they are meaningless and a mockery to the people.
India and Pakistan ( and other underdeveloped countries ) have massive poverty, unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc. Unless these problems are resolved is it not futile and nonsense to talk of freedom of speech, liberty etc ?
As regards World Justice System, one must first ask what the word ‘justice’ means ?
In my opinion justice is not so much what is done in law courts. That is only formal justice, which affects only a very small number of people ( most people never go to a law court in their entire lives ).
Real justice is giving the people a high standard of living and decent lives. In other words, justice is giving to the people employment with good salaries, nutrititious food, proper healthcare and good education, proper housing, etc
It is therefore useless to talk of a Justice System in which justice, as conceived above, is not granted to the people
