There’s much talk on social media about human rights LGBTQ and Womens’ at the moment. I’ve contributed to the discussion myself. Rightly so, particularly of course rights for women, migrants and of course LGBTQ communities. I’d recommend that before anyone posts, a read of the amnesty international website is a valuable exercise. Especially a good look at your own country’s record. Any violation is abhorrent and there are no excuses. I find it inexcusable that any liberal democracy many established or derived from counties like the uk, Spain, Greece or Portugal with some 800 – 900 years of democratic legal process, still have major violations. China and Russia have serious mass violations of course. The list is a sad damnation of humanity and our relationship with power and money.
Word Cup
The Middle East of course has the spotlight at the moment. It’s worth noting that most countries in the middle east have rich cultures dating back hundreds of years but those cultures are tribal. For many the unification and formation was historically recent. looking at the skylines of today we forget that pre 1938 these places were desert and sand. The constitutions are still family Monarchies and the laws based on a religious base.
Our laws in the west have taken 800 – 900 years to move away from their catholic influenced beginnings of Henry 2. Interesting to note that the king who is credited as the origin of our legal system was widely traveled and had court advisors from the Jewish and new Muslim community. He may have even converted to the Muslim faith. The countries in the Middle East have had less than 80 years to move their legal systems and thinking forward.
My Point
My point is that isolating these countries is in my opinion not the answer. We owe it to the people from minority groups in these countries to maintain contact and help provide a voice. We owe it to these countries to support their populations who want change.
History
It’s also worth pointing out that the village of Doha was destroyed by the east India company in retaliation for piracy. The bombardment was indiscriminate and total killing innocent families. And that Qatar was a British protectorate until about 1971. The sexual offences act in the uk wasn’t statute in England until 1967 allowing sexual relationships between men over the age of 21. I know a protectorate is very different from a colony but we didn’t use our influence in Qatar to aid the move to liberal democracy. My point is, I think, knowledge and understanding are the tools of change, not Twitter or Facebook. #humanrights #jgtvdirector #divergent #alternative #dyslexic
