#UDHR75 - 75 Years after UDHR: Emilie Palamy Pradichit breaks down governments’ failure to protect the freedoms of expression and religion

On the 21st of December 2023, Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Law (Law Chula) hosted as part of its seminar series an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

During the event Manushya’s founder & Executive Director, Emilie Palamy Pradichit took the stage to denounce the gravity of the current human rights situation in the region and in the world. In her own words, “we need to be honest, there is little to celebrate when we are talking about the 75th year of the UDHR. Authoritarianism, oppression, multiple inequalities, and serious human rights violations are flourishing across the world today, and in particular, in the ASEAN region. Our democracies are under attack in Southeast Asia."

Emilie continued by affirming that the “international system that has been birthed by the UDHR (...) has failed us”, listing the countless issues that have arisen since, from capitalist greed to state-led genocide. 

Seeing the magnitude of the atrocities committed today against muslim populations, she puts a “particular emphasis on the devastating situation faced by muslims, mainly the palestinian people and the rohingya muslim minorities.”

Emilie showcases the striking dissonance of our international human rights system, urging us to “recognize that the UDHR was created in 1948, the same year the state of Israel was created, and the same year Palestinians lost their rights under international human rights law.”

She, rightfully so, begs the question: “Can we say that the declaration is universal for everyone, everywhere, when we see that the very same year marked the year when the palestinian people lost their human rights?”

Not exclusive to the Middle East, Emilie demonstrates through the lens of freedom of religion and freedom of speech how the persecution of muslim populations remains a concerning trend in the ASEAN region as well, namely through the weaponization of freedom of speech: “We have seen hate speech being used against the Rohingya minority on facebook, on twitter, on other social media platforms. (...) That has resulted in a genocide in Myanmar, and as of today, nobody is being held into account.”

💭You want to know more about the state of the international human rights system?

▶️Watch Emilie’s powerful intervention at the Law Chula event on facebook by clicking the following: https://bit.ly/f0ads

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