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| Thursday, 4 November 2004 |
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Never give up working for social change, says American Professor More than 10,000 amendments had been proposed to the US constitution, but it had been amended only on 17 occasions in over two hundred years, said Prof. Abraham Davis who teaches constitutional law in Morehouse College, Atlanta in the United States. In 1791, ten amendments were passed that granted more rights to the people and restricted the power of the Government. These included the rights to free speech and association. Subsequently there had been 7 further amendments of which two related to the same issue. Prof. Davis made these comments at a seminar organised by the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka on the Inclusion and Exclusion of Minorities through Constitutional Law. Explaining the reason for the stability of the US constitution, Prof. Davis said it was written in very broad language that enabled it to be interpreted in a manner that was relevant to the problems being faced by society. Therefore, the very constitution that once permitted the enslavement of a section of the population has served to free them and permit their empowerment. According to Prof. Davis, it was the 14th amendment to the constitution that had played the greatest role in ensuring the rights of the African American people. This amendment stated that no person who resided in the United States could be denied the equal protection of the law. He said that the US Supreme Court had played an important role in upholding the rule of law and providing legitimacy and a unified perspective to issues of governance in the country. Commenting on the role of civil society in mobilising for social change, Prof. Davis said that African Americans had followed a three pronged approach. First was to utilise the right to peaceful assembly, and to organise pickets and demonstrations outside places that practised discrimination against people depending on their race. Second was to vote en bloc at elections in an organised manner against candidates who were not for equal rights. The third strategy was to uphold the principle that they would never give up on standing up for their rights. In this context, Prof. Davis stressed the importance of educating people about their rights. He said that in the United States there was a popular saying that "If you are not aware of your rights, it is as if you have no rights". He said that correspondingly, Americans had confidence in the courts of law and were prepared to go to them to obtain their rights. Making an allusion to the situation in Sri Lanka, Prof. Davis quoted the great African American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King as having said, "We will either learn to live together as neighbours or perish together as fools". He said that Dr. King had been a student at Morehouse College where he now teaches. National Peace Council |
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