INTERNATIONAL YOUNG CHRISTIAN WORKERS (IYCW)

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHT STATMENT

"All people are born free and have the same dignity and rights, they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in brotherhood"

~Universal Declaration of Human Rights~

“The provisions regarding human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantee the rights and freedoms that every human being should receive without distinction as to race, color, sex, language, religion, politics or other views, national origin or social status, property rights, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction will be made on the basis of political, legal or international standing of the country or region from which a person originates, whether from an independent state, in the form of trust territories, colonies or under other limits of sovereignty."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights....

We are now in the year 2022 but every human being in various countries has not yet fully acquired human rights as the most basic rights that must be obtained by every human being, violations of human rights are still felt by people economically, politically, socially, culturally, religiously, racially, and based on gender.  This violation of human rights was deliberately created by capitalism and the ruling elites to Have more in terms of power, wealth and connection in the expense of the masses.

As an international organization for the young workers, our facts based on realities, the testimonies from young people young workers themself, that until now Human and Labor rights are not respected even protected by the government itself. The situation became worse during the pandemic. It unmasked the neglect and irresponsibility to curve or address the impact of the COVID19 that caused more misery and loss of life to young workers and their family. Until now there is no concrete plan on how to address the problem. Workers cannot wait any longer to the government on how they deal with the situation. They themselves started too organized by advancing their rights in terms of organizing other workers and others tried to bargain to their company about their demands in terms of wages, security at work, social benefits and being a member of the trade union. Unfortunately authority don’t want to support the call of demand from the workers instead union busting, red tagging, force disappearances, filling false cases and extra judicial killings to the community leaders, church workers and trade unionist was the specific answer. As of September 2022 in the Philippines the number of political prisoners rose to 800 comprises by Labor and Human Rights activist, environment defenders, community leaders and church workers. 

We do believed that capitalism are the root cause of workers problem they continue to exploit natural and human resources, forests are being cleared, mining, marine, water, plantations, agriculture, they extract all natural wealth without thinking about the environmental impact for the future, Capitalism exploit human resources, by extending working hours, overtime without being paid, low wages, contract and outsourcing work systems, no health insurance and old age security, and many other labor rights that are not given to workers, and these situations like these created working conditions back in the days of slavery.

In addition there are still many violations of human rights that are deliberately created through wars between countries, wars between religions, ethnicities and races, causing thousands of people die as what happened in the wars in Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, in Myanmar and many other countries.

We as young workers are committed to continue to fight for human and labor rights. regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, etc. Because we want everyone to have the same rights, and to have the same dignity.

Through this HUMAN RIGHTS day, we IYCW call on all members around the world, to sue the State and owners of capital, and build solidarity and international campaigns to demand:

1.   Stop all forms of warfare.
2.  Stop all forms of exploitation of workers, provide decent wages, social and health security, and fulfill all other normative labor rights.
3. Stop excessive exploitation of natural resources, reduce environmental pollution, and create good natural management for the future.
4.  Treat all people with dignity, equal rights, gender equality and freedom.
5.  For the governments and authorities to drop all the charges against all labour and human rights defenders and activists;
6. For the governments to stop the attacks against workers, trade unionists and labour and human rights defenders;
7. For the governments to dutifully fulfill their obligations under the ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize and Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining by protecting fundamental labour rights of workers;
8. For the Committee of Freedom of Association and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to investigate the violence and attacks against trade unionists, labour rights and human rights defenders in countries that not respect the labor and human rights.

Thus, we convey this position statement, we appeal to all national movements in various continents, to immediately respond to this HUMAN RIGHTS Day by carrying out actions in their respective regions.

“We are Young, we are workers, fighting for dignity”