10 December - International Human Rights Day: Distrust With the Human Rights Protection System Leads to Further and Graver Devaluation of Human Rights

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On 10th December 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, 66 years later, some of its articles seem utopian.

The seemingly utopian character of the Declaration is a consequence of numerous and unresolved issues, such as unemployment, corruption or discrimination, that weaken people's trust with the institution, generate poverty and inequality, question justness of social arrangements, cause tension, are conducive to violence, favor the status quo concerning gender based social divisions and stand in the way of exercise of rights, especially socio-economic ones.

The consequences of these problems are the gravest with the most vulnerable: the children, women, elderly and, in case of unemployment, people under 30 and over 50.

The authority of human rights relies heavily on an efficient system of their protection. Otherwise, a message of irrelevance and worthlessness of human rights is communicated, along with that of their violators' impunity, creating an ever deeper gap between the reality and rights proclaimed by various documents, including the UN Declaration.

As an institution with a human rights protection mandate, the Provincial Protector of Citizens - Ombudsman (PPCO) institution reacted promptly every time personal and property rights of citizens had been jeopardized, warning the public of the rising animosity towards the Roma, segregation and difficulties with integration of certain ethnic minorities due to their poor languages skills in the majority language. It also pointed to the unacceptable conduct of the authorities with several local self-governments concerning the exercise of the national minority councils' rights, the dire position of people with disabilities, abuse of children for political causes, domestic and peer violence, communal and an entire range of other problems.

The PPCO is aware that citizens, being constantly pauperized and facing a myriad of problems, have been losing their trust in the institutions for years back. This process is facilitated by the current conflicts of the executive authorities with independent services and professions, assails directed to the judiciary, ruthless media defamation, responsibility erosion over the years and a range of other phenomena causing concern.

The PPCO is bound to draw decision-makers' attention to the fact that losing public trust in the human rights protection system is conducive to authoritarianism, weakening the support to democracy and leading towards further and ever graver devaluation of human rights. Finally, it misleads individuals searching for protection of their rights and interests to turn their back to institutions and start exercising their personal notion of justice.

This year's International Human Rights Day will be celebrated on numerous manifestations, with the representatives of the PPCO participating in several of them. Aniko Muskinja Heinrich, the Provincial Ombudswoman will attend an event in Subotica. Deputy Ombudswoman Danica Todorov will attend the New Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms in the Republic of Serbia conference, while Pavel Domonji will attend the New Optimism event in Zrenjanin commemorating the renowned publicist and translator Mirko Djordjevic, the posthumous winner of the New Optimism Award.