The International Day of Conscience reminds us that nobody should be persecuted for acting according to their conscience—as happened to Tai Ji Men.
by Sara Susana Pozos Bravo*
*A paper presented at the conference “Remembering Shimu’s Fight: Conscience and the Tai Ji Men Case,” Pasadena, California, April 5, 2024.
Throughout human history, human beings have been persecuted for their beliefs. Time and again, majority religions or the ruler, i.e., the king first, and the state later, endowed with unchecked power, fought against those who did not think and believe as they did, or used legal tools by manipulating and fabricating evidence to build cases against religious groups and beliefs.
The history of persecution is not unique to religious wars, or wars of colonization. Sometimes it transcends borders, but at other times it is the state itself that promotes, incites, and persecutes. It does so mostly by exploiting legal loopholes, fabricating cases and evidence, and corrupting false witnesses.
When persecution begins, the historical, political, social, and media context is decisive, because with this repression the violation of a series of rights is inevitable. The first to be violated is a macro-right—that is what I call it—which is freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. What is this right all about?
The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (which includes freedom of belief), enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, encompasses and protects several rights. In the most intimate sphere of the human being are freedoms of thought and conscience, while in the external, visible sphere freedoms of religion and belief are located. These four rights must be protected and respected by the state, and, in case of any violation, the state must act accordingly.
Therefore, no one, absolutely no one, should be persecuted for believing in something, be it a supreme being, a deity or several, be they majority or minority faiths. Persecution becomes discrimination when other rights begin to be denied, or when they become the object of hatred promoted by social networks and even by the state itself.
The right to conscience includes the rights to act according to one’s convictions, beliefs, and ideas. Like all rights, this macro-right has its limits, and the word “conscience,” as distinguished from the right to it, has also other meanings.
In the context of the International Day of Conscience, conscience takes on a different connotation. It is about how society lays the foundations for a culture of peace, how we create the conditions for stability and well-being, for peaceful and friendly relations based on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The awareness linked to the promotion of a culture of peace is another way to promote respect for human rights, the recognition and adherence to universal guiding principles, as well as the elimination of all forms of discrimination, including those against women, children, and vulnerable groups. It is another way for all of us, absolutely for all of us, to promote peace with love and conscience.
How do we build peace—or how do we establish a culture of peace? Through a series of indispensable activities: social, educational, cultural, and civic. It is a global strategy in which everyone has a place, but where the determining factor is absolute respect for all ways of thinking and of believing or not believing.
It is because of this strange power that makes governments blind that absolute respect is ignored, and the aspirations to build a culture of peace are sidelined. Peace is not only the absence of war, but the absence of violence, the recognition of people’s dignity, the absence of hatred and of stigmatization against persecuted groups or faiths.
When a state or a government fabricates a case like that of Tai Ji Men, the state has ceased to see the dizi (disciples) as human beings. The entity that should guarantee the protection of human rights becomes a violator of human rights, and the persecution begins. For the last 28 years, Tai Ji Men dizi have fought for their rights to be respected, and for reparations to be made of the damage caused by the systematic violation of their rights and the theft of their property.
That is why within the framework of the International Day of Conscience, a day that Madam Yu Mei-Jung, whom we honor today, helped establishing, we firmly believe that these cultural activities that promote the balance between the physical and the mystical are more than important. They are decisive in reminding us that no one should be persecuted, discriminated against, or stigmatized for their beliefs, that we must all promote peace and that, invariably, we must move from tolerance to absolute respect.
