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Human Rights?Most European and other countries are signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as to various other international treaties on Human Rights, but asylum-seekers (and other groups of people) are - in practice - deliberately deprived of these rights. Those of us applying for protection as refugees, stateless-persons, or for other types of asylum, are allowed to be in the host country, but are forbidden to work to maintain ourselves whilst the burocratic machinations drag on. Not only are we not allowed to work; in many of these countries we ourselves have to pay all costs of telephone calls, photographs, stamps, and all other expenses of paperwork, including translations into the official language of the country concerned and to cope with never-ending burocracy.We need to work, but host states classify this as illegal. How are refugees supposed to exist when neither work-permits nor financial assistance are given from any quarter? Heavenly manna appears to be off the menu at present! It would appear that we have only the right to die of starvation under the benevolent auspices of all the governmental & human rights organizations, which were allegedly set up to assist asylum-seekers & others. Or perhaps special written permission to die is required!? (Waiting for which permission under the administrative silence game would involve an agonizingly slow & brutal death. Or perhaps - in the name of political expediency - this written permission to die of starvation would be expedited?!) The Universal Declaration of Human RightsThis Declaration is just that, a declaration. It was envisaged that national and international laws would be subject to this Declaration, and that the signing of the Declaration by governments would therefore be nationally & internationally legally binding. However, because this is merely a Declaration, and because there is no goodwill by governments and justice?? systems to enforce this either nationally or internationally, it's absolutely worthless, apart from being a decoration with colored ribbons and bows & pretty glittering stars to be hung on the walls of signatory states to impress the gullible with fine lying words. It's merely a camouflage - of pretending to adhere to human rights - and thus a travesty of truth, of justice, of the Declaration, and of everything else that the UN and its component states are supposed to stand for.The signatories to the UDHR are the self-same governments which have the temerity, audacity and arrogance to squawk about the lack of human rights in other countries!!!
It is governments, therefore, which bear the responsibility for forcing asylum-seekers - and others - to act in a so-called illegal manner in order to sustain life. We have the right to eat, to shelter, and to the basic necessities of life - whatever the legal systems have to say about the matter. Are written legal words more important than human life? Isn't the basis of democracy the rule of the people by the people for the people? Elections are for the appointment of guardians. Citizens don't vote individuals and political parties into power to be abused by them; governments should be acting as guardian-administrators, not institutionalized and legalized terrorists.
UNHCRThe UNHCR in Geneva has a department specifically dedicated?? to the affairs of stateless-persons. However, no UN offices, refugee organizations, human-rights groups and other agencies which I've contacted in Europe and elsewhere had any knowledge of this department. I informed these organizations about this secret section of UNHCR, and suggested that they pass this information on to other organizations. I also suggested to UNHCR that their publicity department should inform the world of the department's existence & function. When I asked UNHCR for information about when said department was formed - plus various other questions - they refused to clarify. I also wrote twice to Mr. Ruud Lubbers by certified mail regarding this matter, but his office hasn't deigned to reply. Meanwhile, the worldwide UNHCR offices and other organizations, because they have apparently not been informed by UNHCR head office that
About a year ago I was informed verbally by officials at one office of UNHCR (outside Europe) that their legal mandate did not cover the protection of stateless-persons, only refugees. This is not only a lack of information, it appears to be deliberate; a withholding of information, disinformation & misinformation, by UNHCR Geneva. There are also far too many personnel who abuse their positions within the UN. For example, when I initially wrote to UNHCR Geneva asking for protection, it took them over 2 years to reply. The UNHCR branch office in the country where I was then staying refused assistance, & deliberately misled me on many issues. This is the type of contempt with which too many UNHCR employees treat asylum-seekers. Very many other asylum-seekers - many of whom I have assisted with psychotherapy - have recounted similar abuse by UNHCR personnel. At another time - in another country - UNHCR personnel assisted me generously on a person-to-person level, and complained that they could not legally do more. This help was given willingly, despite the fact that - insofar as they were (mis)informed by regional headquarters and/or by Geneva - UNHCR could not, within their mandate as an organization, assist stateless-persons.
Why is it that after over 50 years, several generations of Palestinians are still living in refugee camps? The same question applies to other groups of refugees in Asia & other areas of the world, although their incarceration has only lasted for about 25 years. Why - except as a short-term transit point - are refugees kept in camps or other confined quarters, or, as in many countries (also in Europe), jailed? Why are governments, NGO's and other aid agencies actively creating, accepting, participating in and supporting this form of ghetto-building, detention-camp style apartheid, and deprivation of human rights? This abuse of asylum-seekers by host countries could possibly be prosecuted under the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. How is it tenable that refugees - whether in refugee camps or not - are forbidden to work? This is an outrageous human indignity, and causes further problems as mentioned previously. This appears to be a deliberate political strategy adopted almost universally by individual countries. Why? Here are individuals who are already traumatized (it's only the degree that differs) by whatever happened in their countries of origin; many of them have lost family and friends, most of them have lost all their material possessions; all of them have lost (temporarily or permanently) their equilibrium, their orientation, their perspective, their future prospects, their community cohesion, their self-worth, their . . . . We are then subjected to further cruelty by the host country, both burocratically and on a more personal level, depending on their host country's attitude and the political and media manipulation towards foreigners, and especially their attitude towards asylum-seekers. Here are people, some of whom have never ventured beyond their villages in their home countries, some who have never been beyond the frontiers of their home countries, most of whom have no knowledge of other languages or cultures, being subjected to more uncertainty and trauma. Why has the UNHCR & the world community not resolved this repressive attitude? In countries where refugees are in camps, why are they not allowed to work even within this restricted zone?
The UNHCR (and the UN in general) - in my experience and opinion - is incompetent and toothless in too many areas of its operations, primarily because the individual governments which control and manipulate the UN deliberately use this body as a scapegoat for denying and escaping their own government's responsibilities. This is not to negate the wonderful work that is actually accomplished by the UN, despite and in spite of political interference and abuse by contributing governments, as well as the UN's own internal politics. It's the personnel - vast numbers of whom work with goodwill & integrity - who actually get things done, despite the constrictions and constraints. Why does the UNHCR (as well as each of the UN divisions separately) spend billions of dollars annually on self-publicity via movies, full-color magazines and so on? The monies contributed by tax-payers of each country to finance the UN are not donated to be wasted on UN ego-enhancing propaganda campaigns; they're supposed to be spent for humanitarian purposes. Why is the UN permitted to spend approximately 80% of its total budget on administration, self-publicity and jet-setting? How much of the remaining 20% of this vast budget actually gets through to the ground level to the people who desperately need the help? These people need food, medication, education, hope, etc., not color magazines and movies to show them how great the UN is - and most of these people will anyway never see copies of the magazines or movies!. How many people world-wide suffer and/or die needlessly because the UN's priorities are false, and their allocated funds and other resources are abused? (I recommend the book "Lords of Poverty" by Graham Hancock regarding the above & other issues, a copy of which I was given by a UN official.) "Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation (OR THE GROUP) that is attacked (OR MARGINALIZED OR UNWANTED) and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war (OR THE DELAYING OR REFUSAL OF HUMANITARIAN AID, ASYLUM OR ANY OTHER ASSISTANCE TO ANYONE, ANYWHERE, AND WHENEVER THAT HELP IS NEEDED) is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception." (Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, 1916, Ch. 9)
Being seen to be donating is good for political propaganda, and for the whitewashing of the realities for the gullible public at home and abroad. In Boswell's Johnson the story is told of a woman who was seen frying live eels in hot grease in a large pan, on a street in 18th century London. When the eels struggled up the side of the pan, trying to get out, the woman would strike them with a stick, scolding them angrily: "Down, wantons! Down!" The eels, it seemed, just didn't understand their place in the higher scheme of things. There's a lot of that in the way asylum-seekers (as well as local citizens) are treated.
The current drama re the Afghan refugees is no different to the way most governments operate. It's posturing and manipulation for personal political gain and prestige?? using innocent children, women and men as hostages - in this specific case by the Australian government, but is a tactic used by most governments. These are basically the same reasons - admitted long after the events in question (of course), the issues having been fully or partially known by most governments - for deliberately supporting &/or ignoring the realities of concentration camps, slaughters and genocides in Belgian Congo, South West Africa, Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Palestine, Indonesia, Rwanda, & many, many other countries. It's political expediency. The national and international legal and judicial apparati also (mostly) remain silent on human rights abuses. Are politicians and government administrators humane beings? It's possible that this article will be excluded from discussion in many circles, for it questions the validity of convenient facts that are most serviceable to the interests of established power; i.e., that we asylum-seekers are worthless criminals, etc., and that we have a negative influence on the community and state. However well-confirmed the facts to the contrary may be, those facts are frequently regarded as inadmissible, and should (according to those in power) remain outside the spectrums of thought and debate. This article - if invalid - may be dismissed. If it is valid, it probably will be dismissed by certain parties. As in the 18th-century doctrine on seditious libel, truth is no defense; rather, truth heightens the enormity of the crime of questioning and/or exposing - specific or general - realities of any ruthlessness, amorality and/or other abuses of authority (individual, collective and/or institutional) as practiced at any moment in time. We welcome any feedback, and/or your articles or personal experiences, for our monthly news-letter. Your e-mail address & name will NOT be shown in the newsletter unless you expressly request it. For more informaiton write Asylum Seekers Forum Keep sharing - this is a self-help group! ANNEX:For further reading on the psychological effects of terrorism, etc. see the following articles:After the Torturer's Touch TIME November 4,1991 An article showing that torturing innocent victims is still a world wide pandemic with 92 countries involved in his inhumane practice and at least a million people affected by such tactics are alive today. Still Psychic Captives: How ex-hostages cope with posttraumatic stress Fear, anger, stress, sleep disturbances and flashbacks of those coming out of hostage situations --they're all covered in this article. by DAVID GELMAN, NEWSWEEK, AUGUST 26, 1991
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