Dr Sunil Deepak, Medical Advisor, for the Associazione Italiana Amici di Raoul Follereau, suggests a constructive way to remember the work of Father Damien.

Fr Damien's arrival in Hawaii

On May 10, 1873 when Fr Damien arrived in Kalaupapa, it had been been used as an isolation camp for segregating persons affected with leprosy for almost 9 years. The policy of taking the persons affected with leprosy away from their villages and putting them on a land that was fenced by the sea on one side and the mountains on the other side, was adopted on 6 January 1866. In those 9 years, 924 persons had been brought there.

Fr Damien lived in Kalaupapa for 16 years till his death on 15 April 1889. In those 16 years, Kalaupapa received another 2,835 persons affected with leprosy. Fr Damien was himself diagnosed with leprosy in 1885 and officially entered the leprosy register of Kalaupapa on 30 March 1886.

(In the picture: Fr Damien in February 1889)

Apart from the general hygiene and dressings for the wounds, no specific treatment for leprosy was available at that time. There were many attempts to identify a cure for the disease such as medicated baths of a Japanese doctor, Dr Masanao Goto, introduced in Hawaii in 1885, but none of them seemed to arrest or cure the disease.

Fr Damien and human rights

On 11 October 2009 in St. Peter's Square in Rome, Fr Damien will be canonized as a saint. Very often, I have heard persons talk of Fr Damien in terms of charity and compassion for the persons affected with leprosy. While charity and compassion were important part of his mission, I feel that Fr Damien was equally important for raising up the issues of persons affected with leprosy in terms of human rights.

At the time of Fr Damien, probably the concepts of human rights were not so developed, especially if we think of the number of countries that were under repressive colonialist regimes or the trans-Atlantic, trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trades. Yet reading about Fr Damien's fight to get the State to answer the basic human needs of shelter, nutrition, education and occupation for the persons living in Kalaupapa and his comments on persons' right to be live with their spouses and their families, are very much in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948.

A recent book A Bit of Taro, A Piece of Fish and A Glass of Water by Anwei and Henry Law gives many such examples of Fr Damien's work on human rights of persons affected with leprosy. It is for this reason that many persons and organisations are proposing that Fr Damien be declared the Patron Saint for Human Rights.

Optional Protocol of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

In this sense, the signing* of Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) at the United Nations is a happy coincidence for celebrating Fr Damien's canonization.

Often, the international covenants, conventions and treaties have been seen as high on principles and low on practical application in the field, mere words that stay on paper or in meeting reports. This is true, if there is not enough awareness and understanding about the use of these international instruments.

International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural rights was approved by UN on 16 December 1966 and became applicable on 3 January 1976. Since then national parliaments of 160 countries have ratified this Covenant.

ICESCR includes articles related to right to work, right of minors to be protected from exploitation, right to highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and right to education.

Importance of International Conventions and Optional Protocols

An international covenant or convention is an international legal instrument. It becomes applicable in a country when the national parliament ratifies it.

An optional protocol is the monitoring mechanism of an international convention at international level. Thus, the optional protocol of an international convention helps to monitor if a country, that has signed and ratified that convention, is actually applying that convention through national laws.

Though ICESCR became applicable in 1976, the member countries of UN could not agree to a common optional protocol for its application. For this reason, for a long time, people felt that ICESCR was just a document about high sounding principles and that it was not supposed to be applied. The starting of a process for its signature and ratification at country levels is a much awaited step and hopefully organisations working with marginalised and poor population groups in the area of health will learn to use this legal instrument in their work.

How can we use ICESCR?

There are different ways in which international and national voluntary organisations can use ICESCR to promote awareness and advocacy among the poorest population groups so that they ask that their Government respects the Covenant it has signed. They can also work with Governments to ensure that national laws keep account of their commitments that they have signed. They can also help in monitoring the application of the national laws into practice.

Thus it is important that we create awareness in our countries to make sure that our countries sign the Optional Protocol of ICESCR and that our parliaments ratify it.

With growing concerns about privatisation of health services, water supplies, entry of genetically modified food in the supermarkets, ICESCR is equally important for advocates in industrialised countries.

Raising up the issue of ICESCR and working for its implementation could be a good way to remember the work of Fr Damien.

Dr Sunil Deepak, Medical Advisor,
Associazione Italiana Amici di Raoul Follereau (AIFO) – Bologna, Italy
E-mail: sunil.deepak@aifo.it

For the full text of the ICESCR click on the following link:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm   

* Optional Protocol-ICESCR Signature Ceremony 24.09.09

On 24th September 2009 the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will be opened for signature in a ceremony that will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Signing is the first step for States to take in ratifying the Optional Protocol. For the Optional Protocol to enter into force, at least 10 ratifications or accessions of States that are already parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are needed. The Optional Protocol will give victims of violations of economic, social and cultural rights by States the capacity to seek justice with the United Nations Human Rights System when no remedies are available at local level.

The OP-ICESCR was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10th December 2008. 

Categories: International Collaboration, Members, News and Notes