Why you need Respect MAX: Putting humanity first always
I have often declared that I follow only one religion and that is HUMANITY. I have always found it easier to connect with people when I remove all their other attributes like wealth, social status, power, position, authority and so on simply because the strings that come attached to these attributes only makes an individual become PRETENTIOUS rather than be their NATURAL SELF. This is also the reason why many so-called celebrities aren’t comfortable with me as I don’t give them the extra attention or treat them like royalty. On December 10, the United Nations will be celebrating Human Rights Day and hence I thought it would be apt to talk about the same with you all this week.
Guru Nanak’s saying pops into my mind as I’m writing this, which is “Before becoming a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu or a Christian, let’s become a HUMAN” which is almost what human rights is all about. These are the rights that each and every one of us have because we’re born as human beings. For those of you who haven’t studied it in detail or don’t know, these rights are equal, non-discriminatory, UNIVERSAL, indivisible and interdependent. They are also inalienable, which means that it can only be taken away in specific scenarios like when a person causes harm to another person or kills another person.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights consisting of Article(s) 1-30 is a set of comprehensive guidelines, instructions and declarations that aim to protect and equally enforce human rights all over the world. Since it would take a lot of space to replicate the same, I’ve decided to choose some of them and share them with you.
UN UDHR Article 1 says, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. Here’s my take on the same, I invite you all to join me and make humanity your religion. Yes! Let’s begin a journey to treat all as one and cut off all the other strings which will enable us to BE ONE, FUNCTION AS ONE and DEVELOP AS ONE!
UN UDHR Article 2 says, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty”.
In my opinion, this article helps us fight against two major issues that have plagued the world in recent times. Violence against women and violence because of racism. Theaa #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements tell us that we’re still not effective in enforcing human rights or that there are still a lot of factors that need to be addressed everywhere.
Article 5 says, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” The first thing I’d like to bring your focus to is the different forms of abuse that women are facing and are not coming out. The first thing we all need to do is to come together to COMBAT ABUSE ONLINE and on social media. The UN has a program #StandUp4HumanRights under which they protect the rights of women under the #IStandWithHer and #ChangeTheStory movements.
According to Article 15, everyone has the right to a nationality and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. The one thing that we still need to learn is to first save humanity and then our country whilst at the same time also be grateful to be extended this right by our country and protect it when others try to destroy it!
I’d request each of you to read the entire document and all of the 30 Articles to understand how blessed we are.
With
Regards,
Adarsh Benakappa Basavaraj
‘The Coach’