Thisweek, Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi will visit the United Statesfor the first time in decades. Newly free after more than 20 years ofnear-constant detention, she is now an elected parliamentarian. Her visit is, aboveall, a chance to honor her long struggle for democracy. But it also highlights thevital role individual prisoners of conscience can play in personalizing the abstractrhetoric of human rights -- cutting through the wrenching ambiguities thatattend the pursuit of basic universal values in a globalized world. After aweek of worldwide protests that could make a moral compass spin, Suu Kyi'svisit is a welcome ballast. She is a reminder that even though few human rightsstruggles end in happily ever after, progress is possible and that while noperson or cause is perfect, there are human rights heroes who can inspire. Thestories of Suu Kyi and a new wave of celebrated dissidents offer one way to motivatenew activists to press for human rights change amid the complexities andtradeoffs of a global politics in which no governments are blame-free. Theseindividuals are inspiring a rising generation to use the tools and devices theyknow best to mobilize a powerful human rights constituency for the 21st century.
More... Whenthe international human rights movement began 50 years ago, it centered oncampaigns to free "forgotten prisoners," people deprived of their rights to freedomof expression and belief who languished in prisons. As it grew, the movementcame known for efforts on behalf of courageous figures challenging totalitarianregimes. Andrei Sakharov, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela, and later,Suu Kyi herself -- "prisoners of conscience," as Amnesty Internationaldesignated some -- captured the imagination of activists worldwide, making farawayhuman rights struggles seem real and immediate. Millions participated in letter-writingcampaigns, vigils, and protests, fueling media coverage and pressure for theirrelease -- and, sometimes, powering their political rise. Behind each marquee namewere hundreds or thousands of lesser known prisoners whose cases may not havebecome a cause célèbre, but whose voices were taken up by innovative and tirelessgrassroots activists around the world. This movement, and the people behind it,made "human rights" a household word and invented what became a new, proven,and powerful way to bring about broad global change.
Buildingon this success, the human rights movement broadened its work to tacklesystemic problems: investigation and documentation of human rights abuses;high-level advocacy; and campaigns for new global treaties and institutions,from weapons bans to the International Criminal Court. In a matter of decades,the movement made important strides in South and Central America, SouthernEurope, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and -- one hopes -- the Middle East.
The maturing movement faces clear challenges. In a more interdependent and lessneatly polarized world, it grows more apparent by the day that Westerngovernments have diminishing political and economic leverage to press for humanrights change elsewhere in the world. When leaders don't stress human rightswithin their foreign policies, the media doesn't focus on it either. The Westhas also ceded some of what moral credibility it had to champion human rightsabroad after the abuses of the U.S. "war on terror" and the mistreatment of migrantsin Europe. (China now counters the State Department's annual human rightscountry reports with reports of U.S. failings, from police brutality to gunviolence.) And amid a fragmented 24/7 news cycle, household names like Suu Kyiand Mandela are few and far between. While grassroots human rights work goeson, citizens worldwide don't have a name or face that they associate with thestruggles for human rights and freedom in Bahrain, Bosnia,Kosovo, and South Sudan.
TheArab Spring and the unfolding violence over the last week have raised new anddeeper questions. The attack on U.S. diplomatic installations leaves ituncertain at best what role the United States and other Western countries canplay in promoting human rights, democracy and peace in the Arab world. Sincethe uprisings began 18 months ago, critics have called out the hypocrisy of theUnited States in backing protestors in Egypt and Libya while defending theregime in Bahrain.
Watchingall this, citizens eager to do something in response to shocking images ofpeople beaten and shot in distant, rubble-filled streets may be confused overwho or what to support -- and how. These ambiguities can be a recipe for apathy,as would-be activists conclude that human rights are too fraught and turn toother causes.
Yetin recent months we've been reminded that an individual's plight can stirpublic passion like nothing else, offering a path for dynamic grassrootsactivism. By joining in solidarity with citizens worldwide, grassrootsactivists can find the comfort of being part of a broad movement that standsonly for human rights. Whereas the icons of the 1960s and 1970s captured thehearts of activists faraway through their political philosophies and writings,today's prisoners of conscience are connecting to a digital generation throughthe mediums it loves best: mobile, music, and video. Last spring, on the eve ofa U.S-China summit slated to virtually ignore human rights, a blind lawyer stoleheadlines with his Houdini-like escape from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy inBeijing. Twitter accounts went into overdrive as Chen Guangcheng's personaldrama rewrote the summit script, forcing the United States to take a stand forpolitical freedoms through compassion rather than righteous lecturing. His darksunglasses and ubiquitous cellphone inspired legions of tweets, texts, and emails,upending a carefully choreographed diplomatic encounter and prodding the twosides to hash out a deal for his release.
Theworldwide uproar over Chen's fate, rendering his face among the world's mostrecognizable in a matter of days, would not have ricocheted nearly as far orfast without the mass Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. The scale of theoutrage and media frenzy forced China to release Chen, but also to recognizethat even the tightest media controls and censors can no longer keep Chineseabuses out of the spotlight. Social media outlets have also forced Beijing toacknowledge what it would rather deny and ignore in its own media channels: Chen'sstrong popular support among ordinary Chinese.
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