Defending human rights, equity and justice has become more urgent, says Open Society Foundations president

The Open Society Foundations has issued a warning about the decline of human rights, equity and justice in a world that is increasingly interconnected but also more fragmented than ever before.

Delivering her special lecture at the University of Cape Town on Monday, Binaifer Nowrojee, President of the Open Society Foundations, expressed concern about the decline in the "spirit of global solidarity" that has led to the erosion of core open society values.

Narrating her experiences in Tanzania, where, as a child, she saw several South Africans fleeing the apartheid regime as well as witnessing the excesses of the late President Daniel Moi’s dictatorship in Kenya in the 1990s, Ms Noworojee said the world should not stand and watch the ideals of democracy collapse.

“The law, as flawed as it was, was also a site of struggle. As Nelson Mandela and many illustrious alumni of this university have shown, law, can also be used to redefine frontiers of freedom and justice,” she said.

Kenya’s emancipation from dictatorship, she said, came from a small group of courageous lawyers, including her father, Pheroze Nowrojee, who dared to challenge detention without trial and torture in the courts.

This too, she explained, was the plight of the few brave South African youth who dared to confront the status quo to ensure they attained an open society.

In her own words, an open society is one that is transcendent- aspiring toward universalism, melting away differences or embracing them, creating possibilities of a future where all can flourish.

The Open Society Foundations boss said efforts must be taken to ensure the world is not a closed society, which is restricted to a single identity and closed off to other communities.

“The vision of a democratic and open society is one that we need to hold on to and defend through these dangerous times. This is not a time to back down, but a time for all of us to stand by the courage of our convictions,” she said.

Just like how the people did not give up during the times of the apartheid where all odds were pitted against the natives, Ms Noworjee called on lovers of freedom and democracy to flex their muscles and demand for better governance and application of the rule of law.

Also key in her speech was the importance of free elections, free markets and free speech, which she described as the guiding light towards a free, democratic and prosperous world.

However, the mere act of carrying out elections periodically does not guarantee the strengthening of democratic ideals but can result in the opposite where democracies devour themselves, she cautioned.

Elections, the Open Society Foundation leader said, can be used by destructive demagogues to manipulate the public mood, leech off legitimate grievances, hollow out public institutions or bend them at their will and seek to entrench themselves in power.

“Democracies need to be filled- and sustained- with the substance of rights, equity and justice, without them, they can become vessels of authoritarianism,” she said.

She also cautioned against the trend of “free markets” which focus on stripping away regulations, slashing taxes for the wealthy, suppressing wages and dismantling public services which she said “do not unleash prosperity, but unleash inequality”.

About free speech, Ms Nowrojee expressed her concern on what she termed as a “siege” on freedom of expression through covert censorship.

Social media, once celebrated as tools for global connections and democratic debate, have become engines of division, spreading disinformation and hate at an unprecedented level, she said.

Often, those bearing the brunt of online harassment are women and racial minorities, with these attacks against them being ignored by claims that hate itself is protected by free speech.

Despite all these challenges that threaten the once peaceful coexistence among states, persons and societies, the Open Society Foundation president called for increased unification of purpose and unrelenting hope of a brighter future.

“Today, our roots remain the same, but we find ourselves in a different time, and I must grow new branches and leaves,” she said.

soketch@ke.nationmedia.com