Human rights presuppose the existence of humans and on Human Rights Day, celebrated every year on 10 December, we have to prioritise the rapidly escalating threat to humankind and all forms of existence above human rights itself. Following recent military reverses faced by the Russians, President Putin’s oblique remarks on the vastly increased possibility of nuclear warfare bring into focus once again the issue of our planet’s survival.
Professor John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago has been arguing for some time now that when a superpower, which Russia clearly is, in the military context, is pushed into a corner, there is always a danger that it may resort to the nuclear option. As the author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics and global authority on the subject, Professor Mearsheimer knows what he is talking about. If a nuclear bomb is detonated in Europe, there is simply no telling what might happen next.
On this Human Rights Day let us also consider for a moment, if only as an intellectual exercise, a hypothetical situation where a more advanced, alien species invades Planet Earth. Would the human race have any basis to beg for mercy, given how we ourselves treat fellow humans, other living beings and the planet itself?
As a species we congratulate ourselves for being humane, but is that really the case, objectively speaking? We do give special attention to injustices and criminal acts that may shock the conscience of the world. For this reason, domestic criminal courts aside, we have the International Criminal Court, or ICC, an international tribunal seated at The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC carries out investigations and also prosecutes individuals charged with inter-alia, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.
What would a more evolved and powerful alien authority do to rectify matters on Mother Earth? They could conceivably create a hypothetical judicial body to hold leaders of the human race accountable for their actions, and if necessary, prosecute and punish them for serious crimes committed. The immediate question that arises is: what kinds of crimes would such a forum investigate?
To an extent its mandate will mirror that of the ICC: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. If investigators from Human Rights Watch went to China today, they will naturally not accept at face value the Chinese government’s narrative on what is happening with the Uyghurs in Xinjian. The investigators appointed by our hypothetical cosmic court would also, similarly, not be swayed by the world’s dominant narrative, managed by the western media, but carry out their own independent investigation and analysis and submit a report to the panel of judges. The judges of the alien forum would thereafter come to their own findings and conclusions.
What crimes would the alien judges consider aside from the ones enumerated under the ICC’s mandate? For an enlightened alien, crimes against humanity torture and even genocide might not appear to be the worst crimes that exist. An evolved alien is likely to consider our cruelty to animals to be far more reprehensible than we ourselves do. While different communities across the globe debate the relative merits of jhatka, halal and kosher, according to their religious affiliations, alien judges considering the issue more dispassionately will simply recommend the most humane form of execution that causes the least amount of suffering from the point of view of the animal being slaughtered. Consider for a moment how the daily slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a cruel, inhumane fashion, such as presently happens, might appear to a more enlightened alien.
Within the international human rights community, genocide and the related ‘ethnic cleansing’ are possibly some of the worst crimes that can be committed. An alien judiciary might however consider causing the possible extinction of an animal species to be a far more serious matter as compared with the extermination of a particular group within the community of humans, who are anyhow so populous.
Finally, the mandate of the hypothetical cosmic criminal court would definitely include a particular crime that is even worse than torture, genocide, crimes against humanity or causing the extinction of a species. What could be worse that those crimes, it may be asked? What is worse is simply doing anything to seriously endanger the continued existence of the planet, and the plant, animal and human life forms that subsist on it.
President Putin is not wrong, even if he is, clearly, part of the problem. The nuclear threat has escalated. We need an urgent resolution of the situation in Ukraine and rapid de-escalation, otherwise there is a very real possibility that there will be no Human Rights Day left for us to celebrate. For human rights presupposes the existence of humans.