My first objection to the UN's Declaration of Human Rights is that rights exist only when there are duties. Duties are roots, rights are the flowers: you cannot have rights without duties. And to celebrate a day in the year for human rights... but they don't celebrate a day for human duties, which comes first.

 

Why are they not talking about human duties? Because they don't want to give you your human rights. Without duties, rights can only be talked about, but you won't have them in your hands. And about duties, these politicians who have made this declaration have no notion at all. I will give you a few examples.

 

They say that every human being is equal. And of course it satisfies the ego of every human being -- nobody objects. It is one of the most dangerous lies to tell human beings.

 

I say to you, equality is a myth.

 

There are not even two human beings who are equal -- in any way, in any dimension. I don't mean that they are unequal, I mean that they are unique, incomparable, so the question of equality or inequality does not arise. Are you equal to these pillars in the hall? The pillars may be beautiful, but you are not equal to them. But does that mean you are inferior to the pillars? It simply means you are not a pillar -- pillars are pillars, you are you.

 

Every human being is a category unto himself.

 

And unless we recognize the uniqueness of each individual, there are not going to be any human rights, and there is not going to be a civilized world -- human, loving, rejoicing.

 

In the declaration they emphasized the fact again and again that you should love all human beings; you are all brothers. But have you ever seen brothers being in love? Have you ever seen brothers being friends? The way brothers fight, nobody fights.

 

And just saying, "You are brothers," does not make it a reality. These people who declared these human rights -- what authority have they got? Who are they? Politicans... and they are the cause of all the wars, they are the cause of all kinds of violence happening all over the world.

 

These are the people who have kept almost half of humanity -- womankind -- in a state of slavery. But looking at the declaration I had really a great time... because it does not talk about sisters, only brothers.

 

Sisters don't count -- yet they are half of humanity.

 

They are not even mentioned.

 

These politicians are articulate, clever, cunning... mostly coming from the legal profession. They are saying there should be no discrimination between man and woman, between black and white. Between races, religions, political ideologies, there should be no discrimination. And who is making the discrimination? These are the same people who are making the declaration.

 

They have enslaved the woman for centuries, and they are not yet willing to give her freedom -- which, according to their declaration, is a basic human right.

 

The blacks are being treated as animals. Just at the end of the last century, the blacks were still be sold, auctioned in marketplaces like a commodity. And even today, they are not respected as the white people are respected.

 

And these are the white people -- all these politicians are white. These white people have been driving the whole of humanity, for three hundred years, into slavery. They all had their empires. England had the biggest empire; it was said that the sun never set in the British Empire. Somewhere or other in the British Empire the sun was shining and it was day -- all around the earth. But other white people were not far behind: the French, the Portugese, the Spanish -- they all had vast empires, exploiting the whole earth. They have been the parasites: and it is hilarious that all these parasites are now declaring human rights.

 

This is a deception. It is not meant; what they are saying they don't mean. It is just to give you an idea that you are equal to everybody, you are a brother to everybody, that you have all the human rights.

 

But I know -- all these human rights are just hypocrisies.

 

I know by my own experience.

 

There is one human right enumerated in this declaration: Nobody can be arrested without a warrant. I was arrested exactly like that in America -- without warrant, without any arrest warrant or search warrant. Not even verbally did they inform me what crime I had committed. And when I asked them, "What crime have I committed? I must know at least," the answer was loaded guns -- twelve loaded guns surrounding my jet airplane.

 

When guns are answers, then you can be certain civilization is far away.

 

They did not have any arrest warrant. The simple thing for the court would have been... but they not only arrested me, they were clever, they had deliberately arrested me at such a time that I would have to be in jail for at least two days. On Monday the court would open -- only then could I be bailed out. They themselves were certain that I would be bailed out because there was no reason to hold me; they didn't have any proof, any evidence against me. They had chosen a certain situation in which for two days the court was closed -- so at least they would have the satisfaction of torturing me for two days. On the third day... I was not amazed when the court refused to give me bail.

 

The magistrate, a woman, did not even allow my attorney's to question the fact that I had been arrested without any arrest warrant. In a democratic country which claims to be the greatest democratic country in the world, the court would not allow them even to discuss it, because to discuss it would be an exposure. There was no question of giving me bail. In the first place I had been arrested without any warrant, and even after three days they didn't have the warrant -- the question of bail does not arise. The bail was not given.

 

In the second court, in a higher federal court, again the question, What about my arrest? -- which is the basic question -- was not discussed.

 

Everything else is secondary. First, you arrest somebody without even telling him why he is being arrested....

 

And in these human rights, these same politicians sitting in America, say that nobody can be arrested without an arrest warrant; this is a fundamental human right. If I was not arrested, I might not have known.

 

They say nobody should interfere in anybody's philosophy, religion, political ideology -- that is every individual's birthright. But my commune in America has been destroyed for the simple reason that Christianity -- my being not a white man, my commune being universal.... There were black people, there were people from all over the world. It was the only place where there was no discrimination of any kind. They destroyed a commune which was fulfilling human rights in every detail.

 

On the surface man has become civilized, but deep in the darker parts of his unconsciousness he is still barbarous.

 

In the introduction to this declaration it says, We are determined to eliminate all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief. And this is not true in any country. Religions are fighting continuously, and if the government consists of fanatic, religious people, the minority is crushed and destroyed in every possible way. The desire is good, but the people who are desiring it are all wrong.

 

In the convention at which the UN declared these fundamental rights, the Soviet Union was absent; eight other communist countries were absent. America was present. Unanimously the declaration was adopted -- all in favor and nobody against. I am mentioning it because it was basically an American initiative to make this declaration. And America is the first to be going against every human right.

 

Just now, America has given two hundred million dollars to the terrorists in Nicaragua, a small country which has become communist, just like Cuba. To destroy the country, America has flooded it with terrorists. Now millions of dollars are being poured in continuously, to support the terrorists with weapons and with everything. And in this declaration it says that every country is sovereign, and no other country should interfere in any other country's life, religion. That is their business -- how they want to live, what they want to believe or not to believe. It is nobody else's business at all. If in some small country people have accepted communism as their lifestyle and their social structure, who is America? -- and what right have they?

 

Nicaragua appealed to the world court; and the world court is full of American judges. Still the world court said to America, "Your act is against the human rights declaration, it is criminal." Ronald Reagan simply cancelled it. He said, "We don't care about the world court or their decisions." Now these are the people who have made the declaration. They have created the world court to decide in situations where some conflict arises. And these same people are not ready to listen.

 

Do you see the politics behind it? The World Court, the declaration -- all are facades to hide things. If some small country was doing it, then the world court would be right, and America would have taken action in favor of the world court to destroy that country because it was doing a criminal act. Now, because America itself is doing the criminal act, it simply can say, "We don't care about the world court."

 

And what can the world court do? It has no armies, it has no power. It has all the power that has been given to the politicians; but if those politicans themselves go against the law that they have made, what can the court do?

 

And the UN is silent. Its Court has been insulted. If the people in the UN have any dignity they will dissolve the UN and dissolve the world court -- because what is the point? Today America is doing it tomorrow the other countries will. And the Soviet Union is far better, and is right, because it never participated in this declaration. It is not part of this declaration; no communist government participated in it. So at least they have shown from the very beginning that these things are all bogus: "Who are you trying to cheat?"

 

All the rights are, in a way, not very rational. For example, in this long declaration, the right to leave the body when one has lived enough and is now weak, sick, old, a burden, and of no use... One is suffering unnecessarily and waiting for death. Why wait? Why put this man unnecessarily in torture?

 

The society is responsible for thousands of people who are in torture -- in hospitals or in nursing homes. They don't have any possibility of coming back to life healthy, creative, of any use. But they can go on vegetating; and medicine is developed enough -- you can keep them in the hospitals for years. Artificial breathing... perhaps the man is already dead, but because of the artificial breathing you are deceived.

 

In this long list, one of the most important human rights is not included; and that right is the right to leave the world, to give the ticket back, to say, "I want to go back home? Who are you to prevent me or anybody?"

 

But that right, which is very significant today because in the advanced countries, the average life has gone to such lengths that more and more people will be in a situation where their sons and daughters are already old -- eighty, ninety.... The fourth or fifth or six generation has already arrived, and that fifth or sixth generation cannot have any connection with a man one hundred and twenty years old, just vegetating in a hospital. Those new arrivals have no relationship, they don't have any respect.

 

Now, months pass and those old people are hanging around in the hospitals waiting, hoping that somebody may come -- a friend, a child, an old acquaintance -- to meet them. Nobody comes. People avoid them. They are boring, naturally. It is almost as if you are reading a fifty-year old newspaper. They don't have anything new; everything is fifty, sixty years old. If you go to them they will talk only about those golden days when they used to be young, and life was an adventure. You cannot connect with them, and you feel simply bored. Everything has changed in fifty years, and those people are not even aware of what has changed.

 

But no government in the world accepts euthanasia, the right to die. In this long declaration it is not included.

 

Politicans are very, very cunning. They don't want to be controversial, so they say only things which you like or everybody is going to like. They are not concerned with the actual situation, and the changes it needs. Their whole effort is in how to make you happy just by giving you bogus words.

 

Nowhere in the world are any of the basic rights being applied.

 

I will go through a few important rights.

 

-Osho, “Sermons in Stones, #26”