The Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER) interviews Dr. Mario Roberto Veras Pappa, president-rapporteur of the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala and the United Nations organization for the 2018-2022 period.
The interview was conducted by the Foundation’s social action branch, commemorating the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the progress achieved so far in this area.
1. What has been achieved in the 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed?
Dr. Veras: When we refer to human rights, we must be clear about the concept of dignity, this means greatness, excellence; the human being as a rational entity endowed in all its dimension of freedom; a being that deserves all the respect in the world, with the same rights, freedoms, and responsibilities as any other. This, in his view, was the sentiment behind the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I consider that the first and perhaps the most important and initial achievement was the “universal recognition of the basic rights and fundamental freedoms inherent to all human beings, inalienable,” which constituted the basis for achieving the whole conglomerate of actions and strategies currently in place for the protection of the rights of all human beings. Legal recognition of human dignity since 1948, after the atrocities of World War II.
Likewise, it is extremely important that human dignity and the conditions for the integral development of each person have been guaranteed, although not in the total ideal conditions, but this leaves a margin for achieving this in the future.
The primary purpose of all these scopes is the protection and empowerment to be able to face all those negligence and abuses of authority; however, despite the fact that almost 75 years have passed since then, there are societies that still face those violations to their dignity.
This process has evolved over time, with anthropological changes and due to the diversity of places, giving rise to a large number of nuances that have led to the development of international instruments and their enactment. This has allowed us to achieve a list of basic rights: right to education, right to health, right to property, right to vote, right to reproduction, right to work, right to gender equality, and political rights.
2. What are the challenges that Ibero-America must take on in this area with a view to the centenary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Dr. Veras: In the next twenty-five years the task will be intense, as conditions that constantly threaten the dignity of human beings, for example, the preservation of the environment is becoming more and more intense in our countries. However, in order to achieve an adequate stability of human guarantees, it is necessary to have a safe, clean, sustainable, and responsible country that allows the full enjoyment of human rights, such as the right to life, health, food, water, protection, and many more, focusing on the fundamentals.
Our countries should be more interested in proposing mechanisms for detecting, recording, and reporting human rights violations at the local level, in obtaining the unconditional support of the UN as a governing and corrective body through its means and strategies to achieve an adequate solution to the problem of violations. These mechanisms must have strict supervision of the committees, their personnel, their actions, and their function; at present, there are some mechanisms, but unfortunately, they have become politicized, and instead of being control entities, they end up being biased by the governments in power. Moreover, the force exerted by international committees to resolve violations is not sufficient, as is the case in Guatemala, for example.
Some challenges I could mention are achieving institutional support for victims, spaces in government politics in support of human rights, facilitating the means of denouncing and pronouncing violations, achieving a greater number of trainers in defense of human rights, establishing criteria to achieve economic, social, psychological, family, and labor equality. At the same time, the challenges to achieve poverty reduction, health promotion, education promotion, and child protection are presented.
3. What training should be required of persons seeking to practice as human rights professionals?
Dr. Veras: To develop in the field of human rights protection, there must be three determining factors.
- Emotional factors: Having well-founded values, assuming the importance and interest that such a task entails, must have accurate beliefs about human development, and foster attitudes necessary for the solution of the same.
- Basic knowledge: These with basic knowledge of law, responsibilities, and the application of these through individual and collective actions.
- Inclusive language: It is important to consider that human rights training should not necessarily be directed at people who have extensive knowledge of the laws of a country, but that the language process should take place in conditions of equality, in a non-discriminatory manner, with respect, dignity, and participation. One of the most important elements for this is the exemplification of trivial circumstances in the protection of human rights and the opinions that arise to solve them.
Of course, he/she must have specialized instructors in the field to provide the training.
4. In social situations in which the State is demanded to respect or fundamental right. How do you consider that the regional human rights system contributes to the protection of the right to protest or peaceful demonstration for the defense of human rights in Ibero-American countries?
Dr. Veras: Having the support of the regional human rights system is extremely important and essential since it is through them that we are able to make known the pronouncements and needs of the demands of human beings. Therefore, it is important the presence of these entities in these demands to achieve conciliations and agreements to achieve through national and international pronouncements the support that must be counted on totally impartial institutions or mechanisms that are not related to the State and whose primary purpose is the prevention of human rights violations. An organization such as this, politically influenced, will not fulfill its mission.
5. What actions can be taken to rejuvenate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Dr. Veras: In 1945, three important issues were raised in the declaration, namely peace, development, and human rights. The actions that must be taken urgently, in my opinion, are the control of climate change, the control of demographic depressions, the control of poverty, the control of conflicts, the control of terrorism, social inequality, bad governance, the control of refugees, and the control of human rights violations. Therefore, the United Nations should consider carrying out a comprehensive evaluation, or diagnosis, to identify the areas in which it can modernize to propose mechanisms, strategies, and actions that allow for the integral development of human beings, thus leading to the universality of human rights.
FUNIBER promotes specialized programs in its Law and Politics Area, designed for professionals who wish to expand their horizons of knowledge and keep up to date.