Toespraak minister Timmermans bij de uitreiking van de Mensenrechtentulp 2013 (Engelstalig)

Toespraak | 11-12-2013

I returned from Jo’burg this morning. It’s now almost a week since Nelson Mandela passed away. It is very difficult to accept that he is no longer among us. South Africa and the world have lost more than simply the most inspiring leader of our time – we have lost a truly great human being, with an even greater heart.

We’ve lost a man who – when he finally regained his freedom after 27 years of imprisonment and humiliation – sought reconciliation with his former oppressors, without bitterness or rancour. I shall never forget the formula employed by President Obama last night when he said, ‘It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but also the jailer.’ Wonderfully said.

Madiba was a rare spirit who, through his courage, his dedication and his humility inspired us to work for a better world. I don’t think there are many of my generation whose political outlook has not been shaped by Madiba’s presence and influence. He lives on in our ideals, and his spirit will inspire many generations to come.

In his lifetime, Mandela became a larger-than-life figure. An icon of our better selves. But if he was truly larger than life, it was because he never pretended to be better than anybody else. Madiba had two unique and invaluable qualities: moral greatness and quiet humility.

He was a symbol. In any speech or political argument, in any conversation, his name alone was enough to invoke an idea. I can imagine that from time to time people invoked Mandela’s legacy for things he himself would have never endorsed – something President Obama referred to last night. But that is probably the fate of any symbol.

There is no shortage of symbols in the domain of human rights. In fact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is itself a symbol.

But unlike Madiba, these symbols, no matter how splendid, are also abstract and ethereal. They lack the beating heart that set Mandela apart. He was the embodiment of what we, as human beings, aspire to be. Mandela made human rights something real, something more than fancy words on an official document. Mandela gave human rights a human face.

He was very human himself. I hear that from people who fought with him, who lived with him for many years. He had his faults, as a husband and as a father, and he had his human shortcomings like anybody else. It makes him an even greater man, in my book, to recognise all aspects of his humanity. An example I heard from one of his friends and co-fighters of many years was that one of the reasons he was arrested was because he was recognised from a photograph – he had refused to shave off his beard, which had become his trademark. And this small example of human vanity actually got him arrested – which makes him even more human in my book.

For the past six years the Netherlands has marked the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by awarding the Human Rights Tulip to human rights defenders who have shown exceptional moral courage in protecting and promoting human rights.

The Netherlands supports human rights defenders in various ways: by drawing attention to their position in our contacts with other countries, by providing them with training and by offering shelter to those in need of temporary refuge from the dangerous circumstances they find themselves in every day: Shelter City, for example, here in The Hague.

Today, we not only mourn the passing of old heroes, we also celebrate new ones. When selecting this year’s winner of the Human Rights Tulip special attention was paid to human rights defenders working in innovative and creative ways.

Major innovations often start out small. Innovation must be nurtured. And this is why we decided to use this year’s Human Rights Tulip to stimulate innovation.

The winner of the 2013 Human Rights Tulip was one of three nominees awarded a wild card. This nominee was the favourite of the jury – I think I’m allowed to say that, aren’t I? – which judged each innovation on its uniqueness, sustainability and scalability. This year’s winner has shown exceptional moral courage and works in innovative ways.

I am proud to announce that this year’s winner of the Human Rights Tulip is Aahung, based in Pakistan. The director, Sheena Hadi, is here with us today. Hello Sheena.

I know that to some this emphasis on innovation might seem trivial. But I disagree, and we’ve heard two wonderful examples of why it is so important. Many of the things that we now find self-evident, like Twitter or SMS, started out as great innovations in their time. As someone who uses Facebook quite often, I’m still surprised that it’s only existed for the past ten years, that it’s relatively new; and I’ve been on Facebook for about five of those ten years. Amazing that these things can change our lives so quickly.

Aahung is a remarkable organisation whose aim is to raise awareness of reproductive health and rights for men, women and adolescents across Pakistan. They teach life skills to help people deal with physical and emotional changes during puberty, gender discrimination, HIV/AIDS (a theme Madiba also raised with a lot of courage in a country where this was difficult), peer pressure and family planning.

The Aahung method is to engage a wide range of stakeholders, like school teachers, medical staff, religious scholars and parents, to talk about difficult subjects. And they use different means to communicate their message: visual flash cards for those who can’t read, social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and their own website.

Aahung owes its success to precisely the ability to give human rights a human face. Its efforts to promote human rights are not abstract. They involve the people we share our daily lives with and who are part of the local community. Human rights embedded in our daily activities, championed by people like us, working for goals that are bigger than all of us. President Obama again said yesterday, ‘Madiba inspires us to ask ourselves day by day this question: “Am I doing enough for human rights? Could I have done more today than I did?”’ I think this is a wonderful question that all of us could ask ourselves every day.

With regard to sexual and reproductive health and rights in particular – one of the priorities of Dutch human rights policy – positive results have been achieved in the last 20 years. But there is still a lot of work to be done. In Pakistan alone there are some 18 million adolescent girls, and not all of them have the life skills they need for a healthy future. On average 80 women a day die there of complications related to pregnancy. Luckily, Pakistan is also a country with a long line of strong, brave women who are committed to defending human rights, and who will step aside for no man.

I have fond memories of Pakistan. My father, many years ago in the 1980s, was consul in Karachi, and I got to know this tremendous city, in all the meanings of the word tremendous. It’s a challenging city, but also one of humanity’s greatest cities.

Aahung’s work is far from easy. The burden of extreme polarisation and violence weighs heavily on Karachi, and it makes the moral courage of Sheena and her organisation all the more exceptional. It’s incredible, what you’re doing.

But in some ways, Europe and Pakistan are not so different. We all feel the tremendous acceleration of our age. Globalisation is advancing rapidly, and many people seek security in religious dogmatism, a feverish obsession with national identity or something comparable, which always leads to exclusion of the other. We see this everywhere in the world, including Europe. Karachi has two faces: it’s a symbol of Asia’s spectacular rise, optimism and dynamism, but it is also a violent and troubled city.

In this great confusion, it’s important to remember what the essence of human rights is. It’s so simple that we sometimes forget. Human rights are the rights of individuals.

Aahung began with idealism. Not with ideology – but with a passion for human rights and defending them in a complex environment. In a decade that has seen so many monumental changes, and in a city that embodies this process, Aahung symbolises commitment to the values of humanity. Its grassroots approach puts people front and centre. Aahung isn’t anti-this or anti-that: it is pro-people and pro-rights.

And here, we have come full circle. Because the principles underlying Aahung’s work are not so different from those of Madiba.

Awarding the Human Rights Tulip to Aahung is more than simply the end of a selection process. It is the start of a long relationship between Aahung and the Netherlands. And this is more than just a ceremony: it marks – I promise this – the beginning of a sustained commitment to your work.

Thank you very, very much for your attention.