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GHRO CORNER - A weekly column of the Grenada Human Rights Organisation Inc.
The Grenada Human Rights Organization continues to contribute towards public awareness building within the Grenadian society.
Understanding human rights issues is very important to all here in Grenada as we seek to build a human rights conscious society.
GHRO Inc invites all readers to get involved in promoting Tolerance within our societies.
We share the following information
as part of our campaign to introduce the practice of tolerance as a way of life. We encourage our readers and human rights
conscious persons to participate in our efforts to recognize tolerance as an important virtue worthy of implementation both
individually and collectively. In addition, GHRO Inc pledges to promote tolerance and non-violence through educational policies
and programmes. Member States of the United Nations have declared 16 November the annual International Day for Tolerance.
TOLERANCE: THE ENDANGERED VIRTUE
The most immediate goal in proclaiming 1995 the International
Year for Tolerance was to generate awareness among both policy-makers and the public of the dangers associated with contemporary
forms of intolerance. Since the end of the cold war, there has been a steady increase in social, religious and cultural conflicts.
Too many have quickly turned into full-scale armed conflicts; too many fundamental human rights have come under direct assault,
too many lives have been lost.
What does the revival of historical grudges and armed conflict in the Balkans have in common
with the alarming increase in the number of racial assaults in Western Europe? What formal relationship, if any, exists between
extremist or supremacist groups around the world? What does genocide in Rwanda have to do with wars led by extremist religious
groups in other parts of the world? Is there any link between the violence that targets writers, journalists and artists in
one country and discrimination against indigenous people in another country?
The only immediately available answer is
that intolerance is on the increase everywhere and that it is killing on a massive scale. Intolerance raises many moral questions.
It always has. In the 1990s intolerance also raised political questions. Intolerance is increasingly seen as a major threat
to democracy, peace and security. Understandably, the issue is alarming governments and the public. Yet, any talk of intolerance
raises more questions than it answers.
Intolerance has been ever present in human history. It has ignited most wars, fuelled
religious persecutions and violent ideological confrontations. Is it inherent in human nature? Is it insurmountable? Can tolerance
be learned? How can democracies deal with intolerance without infringing on individual freedoms? How can they foster individual
codes of conduct, without laws and without policing their citizens' behavior? How can peaceful multiculturalism be achieved?
To address these questions, debates in 1995 brought together governments, social scientists, lawyers, human rights experts,
artists and many others. Some solutions have been proposed; a great deal of consensus has emerged. A lot more needs to be
done. There is now a formal proposal to convene a world summit on reducing hate. How much time do we have before the next
crisis? As the clock ticks we hear the echo of the words of Zlatko Dizdarevic, editor of Sarajevo's multi-ethnic newspaper
Oslobodenje: "In Sarajevo the very concept of the multi-ethnic community is now on trial; our fate may well become your fate."
HOW CAN INTOLERANCE BE COUNTERED?
1. Fighting intolerance requires law:-
Each Government is responsible
for enforcing human rights laws, for banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination against minorities, whether these
are committed by State officials, private organizations or individuals. The State must also ensure equal access to courts,
human rights commissioners or ombudsmen, so that people do not take justice into their own hands and resort to violence to
settle their disputes.
2. Fighting intolerance requires education:-
Laws are necessary but not sufficient for
countering intolerance in individual attitudes. Intolerance is very often rooted in ignorance and fear: fear of the unknown,
of the other, other cultures, nations, religions. Intolerance is also closely linked to an exaggerated sense of self-worth
and pride, whether personal, national or religious. These notions are taught and learned at an early age. Therefore, greater
emphasis needs to be placed on educating more and better. Greater efforts need to be made to teach children about tolerance
and human rights, about other ways of life. Children should be encouraged at home and in school to be open-minded and curious.
Education is a life-long experience and does not begin or end in school. Endeavours to build tolerance through education
will not succeed unless they reach all age groups, and take place everywhere: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in law-enforcement
and legal training, and not least in entertainment and on the information highways.
3. Fighting intolerance requires
access to information:-
Intolerance is most dangerous when it is exploited to fulfil the political and territorial ambitions
of an individual or groups of individuals. Hatemongers often begin by identifying the public's tolerance threshold. They then
develop fallacious arguments, lie with statistics and manipulate public opinion with mis-information and prejudice. The most
efficient way to limit the influence of hatemongers is to develop policies that generate and promote press freedom and press
pluralism, in order to allow the public to differentiate between facts and opinions.
4. Fighting intolerance requires
individual awareness:-
Intolerance in a society is the sum total of the intolerance of its individual members. Bigotry,
stereotyping, stigmatizing, insults and racial jokes are examples of individual expressions of intolerance to which some people
are subjected daily. Intolerance breeds intolerance. It leaves its victims in pursuit of revenge. In order to fight intolerance
individuals should become aware of the link between their behavior and the vicious cycle of mistrust and violence in society.
Each one of us should begin by asking: am I a tolerant person? Do I stereotype people? Do I reject those who are different
from me? Do I blame my problems on 'them'?
5. Fighting intolerance requires local solutions:-
Many people know
that tomorrow's problems will be increasingly global but few realize that solutions to global problems are mainly local, even
individual. When confronted with an escalation of intolerance around us, we must not wait for governments and institutions
to act alone. We are all part of the solution. We should not feel powerless for we actually posses an enormous capacity to
wield power. Nonviolent action is a way of using that power to the power of people. The tools of nonviolent action - putting
a group together to confront a problem, to organize a grassroots network, to demonstrate solidarity with victims of intolerance,
to discredit hateful propaganda - are available to all those who want to put an end to intolerance, violence and hatred.
If
you have any comments or need further information on Tolerance or any other human rights issue please contact GHRO Inc at
P O Box 3712, St. George's or telephone 449-8080
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