HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN WRONGS

 

We say: Human rights law is a noble thing, but under a capitalist economy, nobility is a bourgeois virtue. In reality, human rights rest upon a fundamental – wilful, gleeful – ignorance about the basis of capitalist society.

Yet cannot dispute the facts presented here in a recent Human Rights Watch article titled Tragedies Born of Negligence in Iraq:

122 killed by a fire in a wedding hall. 82 killed by a fire in a Covid-19 hospital. Three months later, another hospital fire claimed the lives of 92 more.     Though they may seem to be freak accidents, these fires were preventable tragedies sharing one common theme: gross negligence.    Government investigations into these fires found that local authorities were negligent in their failure to enforce safety regulations and conduct inspections. Contractors used cheap, highly flammable construction materials to cut cost.