Kandy Perahara Festival

Kandy Perahara Festival

The First United Nation Secretary

He was born in Norway and he took position as First United Nation Secretary in the UN in 1946 - 1952

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) for all people and all nations. In the UDHR, the United Nations stated in clear and simple terms rights that belong equally to every person. These rights belong to you. Familiarize yourself with them. Help to promote and defend them.

Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948

WHEREAS recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
WHEREAS disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
WHEREAS it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.
WHEREAS it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
WHEREAS the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
WHEREAS Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, WHEREAS a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, Now, therefore, the General Assembly Proclaims. THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it is independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of the Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
11.  
1. Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offense on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offense, under national or international law, at the time it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offense was committed.
12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
13.  
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
14.  
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
15.  
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
16.  
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
17.  
1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
20.  
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
21.  
1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co- operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
23.  
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
25.  
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, and housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
26.  
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
27.  
1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
29.  
1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
30. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein. 

Religion

Religion and Sectarianism

Sectarianism is the division, discrimination or hatred or arising from the main stream. They can be identified as subdivision within a group such as between different denominations of a religion or the fraction of a political movement.

Religious sectarianism is the subdivision of a group of religious personalities wherever the religious sectarianism competes religious sectarianism is found in varying forms and degree. In some areas religious sectarians now exist peacefully side by side for the most part, for example Protestant and Catholic Church in U.S.A.

In others some nominal Catholic and Protestant have been incomplete, for example, Northern Ireland. This conflict was condemned by most Christian. Within Islam, there has been conflict at various times between Sunnis and Shia, for example, Iraq and Pakistan.

Sects, denominations and Cults

            The three concepts of sects, denominations and cults are useful for analyzing aspect of religious organization. However, they have to be applied with caution because they reflect especially Christian tradition.

A cult resembles sects but has different emphasis there focus is on individual experience. People don’t formally join a cult but rather follow special theories on behaviors. Members are usually allowed to maintain other religion connection.

            A denomination is a sect which is cooled down and become an institutionalized body rather than an active protest group. Sects which survive over any period of time become denominations. Therefore, Calvinism and Methodist were sects during their early formation. But over the years, they have become more respectable now they are understood as denomination.

Sectarianism in Europe

Since the 17^th century, there has been sectarian of varying intensity in Ireland. This religious sectarianism is bound up with nationalism due to the Irish immigration. These tensions (station) can be found in other region of the world including Scotland. In Catholic countries, Protestants have been named as heretics.

Religious Sectarianism in Islam.

The civil war in the Balkans which followed the brake up of Yugoslavia has been heavily affected with sectarianism. Croats and Slovenes have traditionally been Catholic. Serbs and Macedonians are eastern orthodox and most others are Albanian Muslims. Religious affiliation serves as a marker of identity in this conflict.

In Pakistan, there has been a history of sectarian, Violence and (unset) since the 1970 (1917). Although much of the violence may be attributed to non theological clashes over tribal lands and class disputed almost all relation between Shiyas and Sunni are peaceful. There exits a large degree of intermarriage between the two communities. Further, many prominent Shirs play an important political role in the country. However, violence between the two communities is often indentified (obtained or initiated) by extremes on both sides particularly in Pan Jab.

Iraq’s population of Shia people was persecuted during the president of Sadam husen. In turn, the Sunnis have complained of discrimination and human rights abused by Iraq. Shia majority government. This sectarianism has increased the level of immigration and internal displacement. Some people advocate and independent nation for the Shias of Iraq. The idea that Iraq could spread into Kurdistan in the north Iraq, in the center and Basra in the south the thinking is that if each community is busy nation they would not be attacking each other as they would be within a single country. Hindu dominant India was spread (split) and Muslim dominant Pakistan after a two trials. Malaysia was spread (split) into Malay dominant Malaysia and Chinese dominant Singapore.

Sectarianism in Lebanon was caused because of the political sharing (challenge) of power in 1943. Christians were given more power than the other groups because they were the majority. Then, although Taif people agreed to end the civil war, power is still divided along sects. Therefore, Lebanon’s religious divisions are extremely complicated. The country is made up by a multitude of religious grouping. The political system gives no room for inter-sectarian marriage and used (gives) no room for civil non-religious marriages.

Sectarianism also exists between Orthodox and Reform Jews. With Orthodox Jews often characterizing Reform Jew as being non-religion they disobey the Torah. They rarely attain Shul (religiously). They adobe some Christian style of worship. Reform Jews, on the other hand, often view the Orthodox as being intolerance of them and of other religion placing legalistic rule such as the observance of the Sabbath.

           

 Religion, politics and war

The outcome and settlement of world war second made the independent nations, the dominant system of action for managing and governing population. The most important factors are affecting livelihood that religion has a role in the political affair of a nation state are;

·         The religious tradition that are present in the nation states, population,

·         A nation state institutional and social organization.

The symbol, myth and ideology of a religious tradition are cultural resource that may affect politic whether a religious tradition has the capacity to affect politic depends on ethical and doctrinal component of its symbol, myth and ideology. Ethic and doctrine vary intense (term) of orientation to the affair of the everyday world. The existence to which adherences are expected to express their beliefs in the practical affair of a society and whether clans are made on politically control social and economic resource. Differences on those dimensions determine the livelihood that a religious tradition encourages political action.

For example, within protestant Christian tradition in the United Stage Pentecostals emphasized individual religious experience and behavior while many other sects tent to stress social action and reform. Pentecostals are less likely to be involved in the politic. Some religious traditions value withdrawal from the everyday world as a part to enlightenment. Others stress the methodical performance of ordinary task and jobs as a religious duties and calling Adherences of world rejecting tradition are look likely to be involved in politics than followers of world affirming tradition.

Claim on the resources of a society are major focus of political action by rejecting in principle the authority of any state, and thereby the mechanism of resource distribution that are found in government. Some religious traditions exclude themselves from ordinary politic. Jehova’s witnesses fit into this category. On the other hand, subject to constitutional and other contain that may be involved by national authority. The Roman Catholic Church has an interest in obtaining resources that are distributed through state action, Thereby implicating itself in politic.

Whether religion becomes a force in the international politic of a nation state depends in cult up on the extant of religion diversity in a population. However, it is seldom a direct cause of political action and conflict. Religion in combination with other property those properties include differences in language, race, partners of settlement and class. Religion inspires political function and conflict can occur when religious differences are correlated with differences in language and other social characteristic. If religious references are only weakly related to other significant division in a population, It is unlikely that religion will be implicated in the internal politics of a nation state.

What should we think about the relationship between religion and politics in today’s world?  There is little doubt that there is a strong relationship between the two—religion and politics—given the actual strong hold that religion has on the world.  But the important question here is what the relationship ought to be, not necessarily what it actually is.  Religiously motivated terrorism has over the past couple of decades raised our consciousness so that we are now aware of the potential danger of horrific violence brought about when religious fundamentalism animates political action, on the part of both state and non-state actors.  Conditions exist in which a dangerous proliferation of non-state and non-church actors has emerged on the world scene.  We are also very concerned about state-sponsored religion in certain parts of the world as well.  For example, we worry that the Iraqi constitution cannot separate itself from a religious foundation, just as we worry about the same reality in Iran.

But if we can worry about the influence of religion on politics in other parts of the world, why are we not similarly worried about the influence of religion on politics at home.  We used to think about the relationship between church and state, and the debate used to be about whether or not they should be separated.  With the advent of the Enlightenment, church and state were separated, at least in the West, and reason rather than religion suffused politics and political theory so much so that the sociologist Max Weber gave this kind of modernization the name of Occidental Rationalism.  This debate over the separation between church and state has never been more relevant precisely because of the more dangerous forms of violence on the part of religiously motivated non-state actors who act for political goals while representing neither church nor state power.  After all, those who flew airplanes into buildings were men of faith with a political agenda, but they were sponsored neither by a church nor by a state.  The putative legitimacy of religiously motivated political action on the part of the state helps to legitimate the religiously motivated political action on the part of non-state actors.  And so our acceptance of religion entering the political dimension of the state indirectly helps to legitimate religion entering the political motivation of non-state actors.  This connection is analogous to the one Sam Harris makes in The End of Faith that our toleration of religiously motivated rationale on the part of religious moderates in politics helps to legitimate or at least empower the religiously motivated rationale on the part of religious extremists.  We have an external threat, to be sure, but we also have an issue to deal with inside our borders as well.

So, we should also be concerned about the religious influence in the political arena at home.  Religion’s influence on politics in America is so strong today that the question may no longer even be literally couched as the relationship between church and state, first because religion’s grasp far exceeds the institutional organization of any church, and second because not only does religion reach throughout state structures but also has its fingers into the internal and external non-state activities that cross boundaries of all types—sustained by a growing number of what we could call religionists without borders.  Has the metaphor of the “wall of separation” been completely dismantled?  Every branch of government falls under the influence of the religionists.  For while no church as an institution has been established in the United States, religion has become embedded throughout the structures of the state, not only in the background culture but also in the public forum.  While some may deny that this relationship amounts to establishment, it would be hard to deny that there is entanglement.  In order to evaluate this relationship and then to establish what it should be, it may be helpful to look to the debate between the two philosophers on this issue, John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas—we could use some finer distinctions.