Yalla!

Probably ever since my trip to Kigali, Rwanda in 2006, I knew that I wanted to devote the rest of my life to, in whatever way or form, to working within the field of human rights. 

I remember very early on becoming overwhelmed about which issues in the world I should devote my time and attention to. There were so many. The issue of genocide, going unnoticed by many was the first the grab my attention, then the horrific truths of human trafficking ripped my hear apart and all of a sudden that seemed like the area I should focus on. Then Darfur. Then Gaza, and the injustices many Palestinians have had to live through for so long. It became so overwhelming. There is so much hurt and injustice in the world,but so little time. 

I then began to ask myself, well, if I could find some of the foundational issues that create and multiply into the issues mentioned above,…maybe that might be the best approach. After spending many months now working for a local Jordanian human rights group I’ve begun to see bit by bit some of the main sources to so many injustices experienced within the arab world and beyond.

Recently, I’ve been focusing on the curent status of Academic Freedoms within the Arab world. I’ve been blown away by how essential these freedoms are to all other freedoms guaranteed to inhabitants around the world in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. 

I’ve met with UNESCO officials and University professors. Heard from Ministers,activists,and students and its plain to see after awhile how so many of the revolutions featured in the “Arab Spring” have been started or strengthened by students and even at times, by professors. 

The Right to think naturally gives way to the “right to information” which makes a powerful combination which eventually leads to the “right to speak”. If you don’t have the right to think then you cannot speak. If you do not have the freedom to information then you do not of the right to fully think. Now, once the right to think and the right to information fall in line, then you finally have been empowered to accurately develop opinions and you can boldly speak.

When the right to think is non-existent, there is no way you will ever be able to truly know justice from injustice. You will not be exposed to information that allows you to develop opinions, to learn from scholars, and leaders, the bettermen of our past and present. Finally, you will certainly not be able to ask the hard questions that pushes and challenges societies to improve livelihood, enhance technology, to know truth.

It is in the places where these rights dont exist,where corruption and all forms of injustice dwell. Starting small at first and then slowly but surely choaking the life and hope of progress of their peoples for years, decades. It is where people are told they worthless, it’s where people are taught to hate. 

Knowing this, the “right to think” is an essential right that the international community must stand for not only within their own communities but also alongside the communities of others. When the right to think is present, it is the foundational step that will hopefully overtime liberate people from ethnocentric perspectives, poverty, and lack of social and economic development within their world. It will help bring justice to those who are without it.