O kulturi ljudskih prava
About the culture of human rights

Author(s): Aleksandar Saša Zeković
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Law
Published by: Centar za građansko obrazovanje (CGO)
Keywords: democracy; human rights; culture; society;
Summary/Abstract: Fundamental attributes of human rights are autochthony, universality, equality and indivisibility. Preconditions for genuine realization of human rights are democracy, rule of law and procurement of minimal social-economic standards needed in order to enable each individual to prosper and develop, as well as other rights. Culture of human rights means respect and protection of human rights in everyday life, genuine benefit from human rights, which does not only depend on respect of legal provisions, but also comprises heritage, attitudes and habits of people. Mainly societies in transition have problems with the culture of human rights. The indicators of lack of culture of human rights are: lack of consciousness regarding the existence of human rights; being unfamiliar with one-owns rights and indifference in relation to their violation; lack of self-confidence regarding realization of these rights, indifference towards others, lack of solidarity and lack of readiness to defend human rights of others, as well as existence of discrimination. Culture of human rights must be „initiated by little steps, by respecting the right of other on everyday bases, by using human rights as a foundation for resolution of both public and personal problems and by using human rights as a measurement for development of the society“ . All subjects of society play extremely important role in this -the state, church communities, those who in the framework of educational process work with young people, civic society, media, non-governmental organisations and individuals who deal with promotion and protection of human rights. The fundamental sense for existence of NGOs is social change, safeguarding and defence of democracy, fortifying of democratic culture of citizens, monitoring of political and transitional processes, political elite, fight against corruption, education on all levels… Through education, public advocacy of important social problems and dilemmas, through recording of the cases of violation and providing monitoring of respect of human rights, providing of legal aid, NGOs are working on making the citizens recognize and get familiarized with their rights, in order to use them, but also to learn to respect the rights of others in their surroundings. NGOs dealing with human rights’ issues should primarily be seen as „suppliers of correct information regarding the violation of human rights“ and monitors of the work performed by the government in the field of human and minority rights.

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