As a society, we have become quite silent when it comes to human rights and the fight against all forms of discrimination. Unfortunately, there are numerous causes of such outcomes and certainly this "silence" did not happen until 2022 or 2021, but, it seems to me, started happening from 2015, like nothing else, continuously, systematically and planned.
Human rights activists and civic activists have never been more needed, and never less appreciated, than they are now. They have never been quieter and less represented in the public. Both human rights activists and civil activists are immediately declared enemies of the state and foreign mercenaries, when they "dare" to criticize and be consistent and principled.
After all, the effects and "results" of such actions are increasingly felt in everyday life.
How can we get any citizen interested in the story of human rights, when many, and more and more of them, have neither the basic conditions for life, nor the income for basic human and life needs?!
I often say that it is our duty to criticize, to look for more, better and different, not to give up and, if we have solutions, to propose them as well. But we are not obliged to have solutions and we must not fall under the influence of necessarily doing it or making excuses if we don't have them. For that, as taxpayers, we pay for the work of institutions and their employees.
I recently attended a meeting with a colleague in the state administration, where a representative of that institution told us that they were trying to put pressure on non-governmental organizations (NGOs). To a colleague's comment that a state body should not put pressure on an NGO, she replied: "And how do they put pressure on us?"
It is as if someone is asking citizens, citizens and the media where they have the right to ask for information and ask questions, and that is exactly the right and, after all, the obligation of both.
What would we be as human beings if we did not breathe for human rights?
The state, as an apparatus, is a closed system and often behaves authoritatively, and not as a service for citizens. However, not agreeing is also our obligation, especially if we respect the basic obligations, which we are obliged to respect as members of the human race, to whom human rights belong. This is provided that we want to call ourselves citizens and behave in that spirit.
To whom and in which society did the institutions "on a platter" bring rights? After all, there are few countries that proactively, and even at the initiative of citizens, inform and educate their citizens about their rights, ways of exercising rights and their protection.
It is important to recall here that in America, in the second half of the XNUMXs, civil protests began for the rights of persons with disabilities and the adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those protests resulted in the creation of the first movements for independent living, first in California, and then in other parts of America and, a few years later, in Europe as well. The paradigm of changing the approach towards people with disabilities, as helpless and dependent, towards the bearers of human rights and freedoms is still ongoing, and in some countries of the world it has not even started in its modern forms. The knowledge that sterilization is still carried out in some countries in order to prevent women with disabilities from having offspring is just one of the obvious and unequivocal examples.
However, this struggle is not over even in contemporary societies, it continues today and takes on new forms and outcomes. And then it was encouraged by the struggles of other groups, which started earlier, such as the movements for the rights of women, African Americans, Alcoholics Anonymous and others.
After all, as is known, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is among the last conventions adopted. Many years, even decades before, the following were adopted: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child and others.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities did not, of course, guarantee new or additional rights, but rather clarified the scope of rights, and prescribed obligations for states to guarantee, respect and improve them. This means that we are on a long road, the path of which should be well "trodden", and the road should be made as modern as possible, so that no person remains excluded, neglected, forgotten and unable to have a productive and quality life.
The author is the executive director of the Association of Disabled Youth of Montenegro
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