On Human Rights and Human Dignity In the emerging global system, hegemony over issues of human rights is being claimed by secular and largely western organizations such as Amnesty International and Article 19. Yet Muslims have much to contribute to the debate. Here, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, talks to Fozia Bora about how Muslims can act, with reference to the Islamic worldview, to complement and correct work underway in the area of human rights.
Could you please tell us a little about yourself, and the beginnings of your involvement with human rights (HR) issues? I am a Malaysian Muslim. I’m 48 years old and teach at a university in Malaysia. My discipline is political science. I obtained a PhD from the University of Singapore in 1977. 1977 is also the year when I became seriously involved with human rights issues. It was in that year that I founded a Malaysian social reform group called Aliran Kesedaran Negara (ALIRAN). (Roughly translated the name means ‘National Awareness Trend’ in the Malay language). ALIRAN focuses upon issues of public accountability, democratic governance and human rights – apart from other concerns. I was its President for 14 years (until 1991). During those years, I wrote and spoke a great deal about human rights and human dignity. It must be emphasized, I tried to examine and analyze human rights issues from a spiritual-moral perspective. I did not then, as I do not now, accept the superficial western ‘liberal’ notion of human rights.
the long journey to human dignity and global justice 33