Panelists Say Carter's Policy on Human Rights Cannot Apply to Underdeveloped African Nations

Four panelists condemned President Carter's human rights campaign in a discussion on political repression in southern Africa last night.

A question-and-answer session followed the talk in the Science Center, the last in a series of events commemorating the life and ideas of Malcolm X.

C. Clyde Ferguson Jr., professor of Law and former ambassador to Uganda, told a crowd of about 50 that human rights had become a "slogan" which the United States promoted and emphasized without defining its effect on individual international regimes.

Geocentrism

"I wonder whether it is candid or intellectually honest to call these rights universal when the underlying assumptions grow out of a history of intellectual thought developed in the North Atlantic basin," Ferguson said.

He cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 as an example of American and Western European reliance on narrow assumptions which fail to take into account conditions special to the African continent.

He noted that the first 20 articles of the declaration reflected 18th century European enlightenment ideas about limiting government power, while the last ten affirmed a government's duty to create a "situation where man can enjoy his humanity."

"But," Ferguson added, "is it relevant to talk about the right to free speech in a country where people are starving to death?"

Olara Otunna, general secretary of the Uganda Freedom Union, strongly denied the universality of human rights.

Speaking for his organization, he said, "Our conception of human rights does not include protection for the privileged. It is ry to disturb their interests in order to redress the injustices against the bulk of the population on the African continent."

Otunnu also related Carter's interest in human rights to his intention "of selling a specific social system, namely capitalism."

"Carter's human rights policy has an ideological component which undermines the universality of the rights themselves. It is valued as a made-in-America product for export to less fortunate countries in the world," he said.

Ken Carstens, director of the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, discussed the potential threat to human rights of full industrialization.

An agency insuring human rights must have a legal as well as an ideological basis expressed in a political agreement suited to a particular country's history and stage of economic development, he said.

Carstens said he was "not advocating a return to civilization before the wheel," but argued that developing nations were particularly vulnerable to the influence of "powerful friends."

"There are great advantages to a government'run human rights organization. It has full status and funding and the mystique, if not the force, of the law. But as a political organization, it must remain somehow independent, and that is a difficult task," Carstens said.

Otunnu also related Carter's interest in human rights to his intention "of selling a specific social system, namely capitalism."

"Carter's human rights policy has an ideological component which undermines the universality of the rights themselves. It is valued as a made-in-America product for export to less fortunate countries in the world," he said.

Ken Carstens, director of the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, discussed the potential threat to human rights of full industrialization.

An agency insuring human rights must have a legal as well as an ideological basis expressed in a political agreement suited to a particular country's history and stage of economic development, he said.

Carstens said he was "not advocating a return to civilization before the wheel," but argued that developing nations were particularly vulnerable to the influence of "powerful friends."

"There are great advantages to a government'run human rights organization. It has full status and funding and the mystique, if not the force, of the law. But as a political organization, it must remain somehow independent, and that is a difficult task," Carstens said.