Today I met my first human rights defender.
He’s , however symbolic, one of the main reasons why I flew half across the world to work for free for a year. I expected to be filled with awe and respect for this man who fights so hard for justice for those who have been abused and killed in the war but strangely enough I felt nothing. This small man whos name will have to remain untold is under a 24 hour protection scheme, accompaniment, due to the threats he has received. This is one of my organisation Peace Brigade International(PBI)’s tasks, to provide so-called unarmed bodyguard protection. If this is done well, a wider space for peace for this man has been created.
Which might sound a little vague, hippyish even.
In reality it is all but vague. It means that if he can act more freely and less fearfully and continue his work of bringing offenders of human right crimes to justice without him or his family being harassed, arrested or potentially killed because there is a visible international presence like PBI, then we have done our job. So the fact is that I don’t have to feel anything. I don’t even have to like him as a person. I just have to believe that somebody should care about these human right defenders that live and work in faraway places like Nepal. Because if
nobody cared, waited outside the court rooms, police stations and jails when they took statements from victims to slowly, slowly put together files maybe these files would never be written. And if the files with facts and testimonies from nightly raids, kidnappings, torture, rape, murder and other kinds of impunity never were written that could mean that all those actions that for those of us that find these acts appalling and morally wrong and we have little desire to experience were indirectly sanctioned. So no, I don’t have to feel anything. But I do have to
do something.
He’s , however symbolic, one of the main reasons why I flew half across the world to work for free for a year. I expected to be filled with awe and respect for this man who fights so hard for justice for those who have been abused and killed in the war but strangely enough I felt nothing. This small man whos name will have to remain untold is under a 24 hour protection scheme, accompaniment, due to the threats he has received. This is one of my organisation Peace Brigade International(PBI)’s tasks, to provide so-called unarmed bodyguard protection. If this is done well, a wider space for peace for this man has been created.
Which might sound a little vague, hippyish even.
In reality it is all but vague. It means that if he can act more freely and less fearfully and continue his work of bringing offenders of human right crimes to justice without him or his family being harassed, arrested or potentially killed because there is a visible international presence like PBI, then we have done our job. So the fact is that I don’t have to feel anything. I don’t even have to like him as a person. I just have to believe that somebody should care about these human right defenders that live and work in faraway places like Nepal. Because if
nobody cared, waited outside the court rooms, police stations and jails when they took statements from victims to slowly, slowly put together files maybe these files would never be written. And if the files with facts and testimonies from nightly raids, kidnappings, torture, rape, murder and other kinds of impunity never were written that could mean that all those actions that for those of us that find these acts appalling and morally wrong and we have little desire to experience were indirectly sanctioned. So no, I don’t have to feel anything. But I do have to
do something.
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