It seems almost impossible to have a conversation of any length these days without the dire state of the world being put on the table for gruesome dissection.
Human rights abuses around the world, the rise of autocracy in the U.S., Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the ravages of climate change coming our way are solid reasons to weep, moan and collapse in despair. What’s been most troubling to me is that I don’t see how change is possible without transforming the hearts and minds of people who do not respect fellow humans and want to deliberately harm them. How the hell is that ever going to happen?
But the Salt Spring Forum’s latest esteemed guest shifted my thinking about that. Kenneth Roth is the former longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), a nonprofit group that documents human rights abuses around the world, publishes reports on its findings and takes action to stop the abuses from continuing. Roth’s new book is called Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments.
As Roth told more than 200 people at Fulford Hall on Friday, Oct. 10, trying to change the hearts and minds of dictators and corrupt power-mongers is not one of the tools HRW uses, and doesn’t need to be. Instead, they confront those regimes and bring pressure to bear in areas of importance to the perpetrators, and/or convince more respected nations like Canada to join others in doing the same. Just do what works and let go of what cannot be changed is what I took from that part of his talk.
Roth also let some air out of our collective helplessness balloon by pointing out that while some democratic countries appear to be sliding towards autocracy, others that have experienced autocratic rule are rejecting it vehemently, and he gave several examples. He also assured the crowd that resistance to autocracy in the U.S. is strong and it’s not inevitable that tenets of democracy like fair elections, free speech and respect for the judiciary will be snuffed out there.
“My overall point is that we should not be defeatist,” he said. “There is nothing ordained about Trump destroying America’s democracy, and there’s nothing ordained about the demise of democracy. This is a serious threat, but there is a battle underway. There’s a fight. We’ve got to engage in it, and we can push back and we can win it.”
In other words, the news is not all bad and activism does make a difference.
Roth commented in depth on the Israel-Palestine situation, explaining how Israel’s actions constitute genocide against the Palestinian people, and he described U.S. President Donald Trump’s important role in leading to the ceasefire agreement. Israel has basically become a “pariah state,” Roth said, but still needs U.S. support to function.
That reminded me of what a Canadian orthopaedic surgeon who’s been working at hospitals in Gaza said at an All Saints event last month when asked how people can best help the Palestinians.
“I firmly believe that what will really benefit Palestinian people is a ceasefire and an end to the occupation, an end to apartheid, [having] self determination,” said Dr. Deirdre Nunan. “And that is not going to happen from a couple of doctors going over there and treating wounds. It’s going to happen from policy change here. It’s going to happen from that long grassroots work, which is kind of thankless, and it does feel very far away, but this is the work that matters.”
While a ceasefire is just the first step, pressure from individuals, organizations and governments around the world has at least made that happen.
Another human rights-focused event I attended this fall was the Vancouver session of Alex Neve’s CBC Massey Lecture series titled Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World. At one point Neve — a human rights lawyer and former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada — asked us to look around the York Theatre space and consider that everyone there was an individual concerned about human rights and making the world a better place. doing that did make me feel more hopeful.
In a Sept. 2 piece on his alexneve.ca website Neve wrote: “We each have a responsibility to uphold human rights; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights tells us so. But even more importantly, we all have the potential and the power to do so. When we come together, be it a small neighbourhood campaign organized by a handful of people or a global movement that draws millions together, we do indeed overcome injustice and transform our world. Never tell yourself you’re insignificant and you can’t make a difference. Nothing could be further from the truth. History tells us so.”
Then on Saturday I came across another example of an individual dropping his cloak of inhibition and adding his voice to the chorus rejecting cruelty and injustice.
“How do well-fed artists working in a peaceful corner of the world respond to the ethnic cleansing of a small country thousands of miles away?” asks Michael Wall in the artist statement to his impactful piece called Merciless – We Were But Children. “Do they have the moral right to express their outrage and distress, or is that just jumping on a bandwagon? I asked an artist friend who is a refugee from there, and her response was that my support would be welcome.”
The piece is a photograph of a rusted, engraved steel plate that looks like something from a war zone. It includes a mutilated child’s shoe — “symbolic of a brutalized people, the victims of genocide,” he said. Wall’s work is part of the Salon des Refusés exhibition up at the Salt Spring Gallery until Oct. 15. Sale proceeds will be donated to Palestinian relief organizations.
From Wall to Nunan to Neve to Roth, and others I’ve heard speak or read about lately, it’s clear we should not keep wallowing in despair or remain paralyzed by the horror of man’s blatant inhumanity to man. Everything we do, say, sing and write in support of human rights, democracy, civil society and justice has the potential to make — and is already making — a difference now and for the future.
The writer is the editor of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper.