Susana Sánchez

Human rights are the most basic and yet at the same time the most important part of any domestic or international legal system. All pretend to understand what they are but ultimately very few really understand what these rights entail, and almost none apply them directly in the day to day.

Having attended the sessions concerning Human Rights in Business late last February, I was granted a deeper understanding of what these rights might mean in a business context. As I stated in the conclusion of these sessions, in my case having completed my double-degree studies in business and law, I always found that Human Rights were in a kind of limbo, in the middle of nowhere. I’ve always known what they were, but nobody ever specifically taught me their application.

To learn that there are both EU and non-EU mechanisms to prevent human rights abuses; to understand the problems that exist when trying to access justice in such cases where there are serious violations; to be alarmed by how those who have violated the rights of hundreds of people yet seem to slip through the plethora of rules that populate our legal system delaying access to justice and alleging lack of competence … To realize that in many instances the infringement of these rights is less costly to a company than the cost to fulfill their duty as citizens of the world.

Indeed there are mechanisms to prevent abuse, we have organizations that struggle daily to eliminate inequalities and protect the weaker party. The problem, in my view, is people: people who profit from the life, health or physical integrity of others. Finally, there is little use in developing laws, codes, treaties, promises and international mechanisms to protect our citizens if the people around us care not of those around them.

I live in South Africa, the country with the most democratic constitution in the world, in the rainbow nation, in a place that will always serve as an example of overcoming to the international community. And only here, I have found that human rights violations do not attend or standards bodies. The real problem with Human Rights: the human being.

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