Mankind has been able to learn, to progress and
to advance not only in the areas of technology and science, but also in moral
standards, principles and virtues. Surprisingly, what turned out to be more
challenging is neither the complexity of science nor the sophistication of
technology. What people are now struggling with most is living with different
principles, beliefs and ideas, and this need that we call coexistence, is
somehow related to the beliefs themselves that many people are eager to show
and defend.
There has also been a significant improvement
in protecting and promoting human rights. Nowadays, almost all the conflicts
that the world is witnessing are related to human rights, and these conflicts
are increasingly serious because many of us believe they need more rights to
protect. Fundamentally, the reason why many people care so much about their
beliefs and their ideologies is because they think that their lives would be
more complicated and less valuable without them. Many people also think that
their ideologies are sources of hope, strength and optimism.
In many countries, young people have been
included in the process of peace-building, human rights protection and
democratization. In Ukraine for example, students have been engaging themselves
in the political scene and in decision making. They are starting their own
NGOs, associations and projects that aim to assist them in making a positive
impact in their communities and in establishing a strong connection between
Ukrainian youth and the government. One of these NGOs is “Voice of Youth
Initiative Ukraine” which was founded by a group of international students at
Nazareth College of Rochester in Rochester, New York. This initiative aims to connect
freedom of expression with personal and public action in Ukraine, with a focus
on promoting innovative ideas and building connections between Ukrainian and
foreign universities.
Freedom of expression has always been a very
delicate issue because it has to do with the beliefs and the principles of many
people in many ways. The most recent example is the attack on Charlie Hebdo in
Paris. This event proved that personal beliefs, theories, doctrines and ideologies
can be very powerful and very significant in shaping people’s personalities and
behaviors. Moreover, these people can also use their ideologies to explain
their actions and prove their right to do and say whatever they feel is right.
The paradox here is when people explain their acts by honoring and respecting
their belonging to a certain religious group or by believing in something
sacred, which in this case contradicts with what they call freedom of
expression, just because they choose what they believe in and then they choose
to act on the name of what they believe in, creating clashes with those who
have different ideas and sometimes even with their fellow believers.
Because no beliefs, no principles and no ideas
should grant malign and destructive sensations and actions, it is essential to
keep working on the advancement of human rights by defending people’s rights to
express their ideas, practice their beliefs and disagree with others, just like
we give ourselves the right to express our ideas and criticize others’. The
Charlie Hebdo attack in France, the flogging of the Saudi journalist Raif
Badawi, the Boko Haram massacre in Nigeria and many other tragic events we have
witnessed in the last few months are obvious proofs of the strong negative effect
that beliefs have on people’s actions. These people think that what they
believe in is the most interesting doctrine that there is, and everybody should
give them their attention, and that is why they tend to harm others and
sometimes even take people’s lives in the name of the beliefs that they shape,
modify and sometimes even invent.
One might wonder what the solution for this
confusion can be. People who defend their rights to free expression should also
let others defend their rights and express their ideas and beliefs freely and
peacefully. The solution does sound simple and clear, however, what rises here
is the problem of selfishness, as many people tend to reject different opinions
just because they cannot live in a heterogeneous society where individuals can
embrace difference and use it to enrich their communities. This is again
paradoxical because these people themselves ask for their rights to respect and
to free speech, which means they are also asking for difference, for tolerance
and for coexistence.
#AIK #YAL
