Human Rights

This is a lightly edited version of a personal statement I first published on an earlier version of this website in 2010.

Human rights abuses, in any of their manifestations, are among the most disturbing aspects of the society we live in. I think they are as important as mankind's problems of disease, poverty and the many other issues we should be striving to resolve because knowing that another human being is deliberately trying to make your life painful is a terrible thing.

The idea of someone incarcerated somewhere being regularly subjected to cruel punishment by another person is quite literally inhumane. In many cases, people are subjected to such treatment because they have spoken out against an injustice — for example, the actions of a repressive regime — and are then punished and left forgotten by the society they were trying to improve.

I do not know whether I would have the courage to endure what so many prisoners of conscience experience for causes they believe in. That is one reason I care deeply about organisations that give these people hope, show them they are not forgotten, campaign for their release and support survivors of torture and persecution.