Malta has been receiving “positive” feedback from several countries about its plans to present a Declaration of Human Responsibilities, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg.
We don’t want an individualistic or egoistic concept of human rights- Tonio Borg
“Russia is very interested, the Arab states are interested and so are the Commonwealth countries, African countries and Gulf States. Small states and large states... In general, there was positive feedback from everyone I met,” Dr Borg said in an upbeat telephone conversation from New York.
“What we want to make clear, though, is that these responsibilities are not there to minimise human rights,” he added.
Malta’s idea is to encourage countries to subscribe to a list of human responsibilities which complement human rights to ensure more solidarity with other people, as well as other generations.
It was floated by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi when he made his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York nine days ago.
The plan for now is to treat it as an inter-governmental agreement rather than a UN treaty, but the intention is for it to be eventually endorsed by the UN.
A draft declaration has already been written by a group of international experts including Malta’s Salvino Busuttil, according to Dr Borg. Prof. Busuttil, who suggested the initiative to the government, was in New York with Dr Borg to lobby countries about Malta’s plans to organise an inter-governmental conference next year to discuss the idea.
Dr Borg said the draft would only be published after other countries have had a chance to contribute and make their amendments.
But he gave one example: the responsibilities to future generations. He said future generations also had rights which meant today’s generations had duties towards, for example, the environment. Dr Borg said he hoped to organise the conference in mid-2012, if the idea garnered enough interest.
“Although the response was positive, I can only be sure if they (other countries) say they will come to the conference,” Dr Borg said, pointing out that this would be a prestigious opportunity for Malta which would not cost much.
Malta has a history of seeking responsible ways of dealing with global issues within the UN. In 1967 it proposed the idea of the sea being the common heritage of mankind and in 1988 it addressed climate change as mankind’s common concern.
“This is very much within Malta’s foreign policy tradition. When we spoke about the high seas, we said it shouldn’t just be a question of take what you can, there should be an authority. On climate change, we can’t just have industrial countries killing others,” Dr Borg said.“This is the same thing. We don’t want an individualistic or egoistic concept of human rights.” Asked whether this was a new idea, Dr Borg said something similar had been proposed by Costa Rica in the past but it had a “limited” scope.
However, a quick search on-line shows that there had been several attempts at similar declarations in the past. In 1998, one such declaration was written in Valencia under the auspices of Unesco, to mark 50 years from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.