Individual and public responsibilities

Meeting with a few teachers and some fifteen students in the French department of the University of Western Languages and Cultures, 25th October 2004

Presentation of the Charter by Edith Sizoo. Edith’s approach, which drew on personal experiences in the context of recent historical evolutions, was listened to with much attention as were her examples illustrating how different cultures approached the Charter, in India, Africa and Latin America, among others.

The discussion had been extremely well prepared. Many students had already read the Charter and thought over questions. Here are a few examples:

The Charter targets individual responsibility. But there are so many social and economic problems in our country. So what role does the State play?

Everything is changing in our country at the moment. What tradition should I look to to define my responsibilities?

These questions reveal the uncertainty many young people feel in relation to certain values of the past and to laws and customs. After the collapse of the communist ideology, the fall of the soviet empire and the country’s independence, the “transition period towards democracy” continues still with no end in sight, despite the high hopes held for the “rose revolution”.

Edith’s responses called for responsibility from the members of every family, every district and every town. This is an extremely significant appeal in a country where public spaces had once been completely occupied and controlled by the State! And where men sit in streets and courtyards for hours on end, indifferent to the rubbish that has built up around them. They are a sign of a disconcerting passiveness (on the other hand, responsibility towards the extended family, towards the elderly and even towards neighbours is much more developed in Georgia than in our own countries).

The students paid particular attention when Edith highlighted the difference between Human Rights (equality that is the same for everyone) and Human Responsibilities (relative to everybody’s means).

Follow-up possible, call for initiatives

Seeking examples where responsibility is exercised in districts and towns (neighbourhood companies in France, citizen initiatives on housing issues, etc.).

Is responsibility innate or acquired? Can one be obliged to be responsible? Is responsibility something that can be learned? Isn’t responsibility simply a part of morality? Shouldn’t the word duty be used rather than responsibility?

Edith stressed that the word responsibility is richer because it implies an awareness and desire that comes from inside each individual. This formed the subject of a fruitful discussion (that we had also led, and which reached a provisional conclusion, when the Charter was translated into German); it was an opportunity to talk about the difference in how responsibilities are perceived in different cultures (responsibility assumed by the individual, responsibility given to the individual by a group).

What does this Charter offer that is new compared with existing ethical traditions?

This question was a chance to look at the relation between the Charter and Georgian values. But we weren’t able to develop this topic - something to be explored further! It also raises awareness of the crisis a conception of progress envisaged in a devolving era resulted in, and was a chance to talk about the “principle of responsibility” described by Hans Jonas.

How will the Charter be taken at government level? I can’t imagine governments of big countries taking it seriously.

This was an opportunity to reiterate the futility of waiting for people “higher up” - for politicians to take the first step towards solving problems.

You’re right, politics is just a dirty game. It’s never going to solve anything!

A dangerous attitude, which has become rapidly widespread again since the period of enthusiasm towards the young president, Misha Saakashvili has come to its end. Politics needed to be put into perspective and rehabilitated, positive examples needed to be given and possibilities for cooperation highlighted.

Does the Charter call for irresponsible actions to be punished?

This is another of those questions that require long explanations. Edith pointed out that the existence of the Human Rights Charter has proved useful and beneficial in many historical situations.

What values is the Charter founded on? Is it not leading us into globalisation (with the implication: outside of our traditions)?

This question illustrates to what extent it is sometimes difficult to get the sense of the approach across; it reveals distrust and prevailing fear towards a large and imposing western culture. It was an opportunity to introduce the idea of “alter-globalisation” and to insist on the common challenges that all countries have to face.

One of the department’s young romance languages teachers, a “cultural translation” specialist, told us that with her students, she had worked on a translation of the Charter that was more adapted to a Georgian context. She is ready to go further and would be glad to form part of a reflection group on the Charter.