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Editor's Introduction
- Gallaudet University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
he concept of human rights tends to be invoked when the laws and practices of a particular society fail to protect certain individuals or groups from harmful or unjust treatment by their fellow citizens. The human rights violations most frequently experienced by deaf people include language deprivation, educational impoverishment, and various forms of cultural and social oppression . Ironically, these violations may often be inflicted by individuals who believe they are serving deaf people's best interests. As Mary Malzkuhn (United States) puts it in her paper in this section, an attitude of "benevolent paternalism" underlies many hearing professionals' efforts to suppress tendencies-toward the use of sign language, for instance-that bring attention to Deaf people's differences from hearing people. The papers in this section collectively suggest that such efforts in reality prevent Deaf people from developing their linguistic capabilities, their educational potential, their cultural identities, and their attainment of fulfilling roles in society. As Harlan Lane (United States) suggests in his paper, only a pluralistic society, willing to accept and nurture differences, can hope to realize all of those aims for its Deaf, as well as its hearing, citizens. The opening paper, by Hurst Hannum (United States), indicates that blatant human rights violations in World Wars I and II led to acceptance among most countries of the need for a global articulation and defense of human rights. The United Nations (U.N.) has assumed this role through declarations of principles that can in some cases be backed up by force. Hannum says that many U.N. declarations implicitly support the rights of Deaf people to maintain and enjoy their own language and culture. He suggests, however, that because of vested interests, combined with ignorance of Deaf people's concerns and issues, it will be necessary for Deaf communities to take the lead in asserting their linguistic, cultural, or political rights. Hannum cites the Deaf President Now movement [discussed by a panel in this section] as one successful instance of such self-assertion. He says information from The Deaf Way, similarly, may serve to convey the concerns and rights of Deaf people to an otherwise ignorant world. Although Malzkuhn, in the next paper, agrees with the necessity of Deaf people's assertion of their rights, she suggests that where society has failed to educate deaf people, and where illiteracy and low self-esteem have resulted, intervention through international organizations may be required. Mamadou Barry (Guinea and United Nations) similarly suggests in his paper that governments could playa significant role in enlightening societies about Deaf people's needs and rights and that the United Nations (at which he is an officer) would ideally help to coordinate such efforts on an international level. Barry's paper affirms Deaf people's right to be regarded as a linguistic minority population deserving to be taught in their native sign language and given access to interpreters. Malzkuhn points out that although the oppression experienced in many developing nations is often shocking, more subtle, but also insidious, forms Editor's Introduction of oppression occur in highly developed nations as well, where sign languages are in many instances overlooked or suppressed. The next seven papers provide accounts of individual countries or regions in which oppressive conditions prevailed at the time of The Deaf Way. It should be emphasized that these accounts, representative of conditions typical of many nations, are not being singled out as unusual. Stephen Dhalee's (Bangladesh) paper about Bangladesh, for instance, creates a picture that in its essentials is continually reenacted in country after country. The majority of deaf people in Bangladesh, Dhalee reports, are uneducated, unemployed , and isolated from the rest of society. A nearly universal acceptance of oralist and integrationist ideas by hearing people in Bangladesh-however well intentionedin effect prevents Deaf people from gaining access to information, from participating fully in society, or from producing leaders able to assert effectively Deaf people's right to be different. The above description of deaf people's plight in Bangladesh could apply almost word-for-word to Vanetta Lampropoulou's description of conditions in Greece, Marius Rock Titus' account of French-speaking Africa, Alberto Paliza Farfan's portrayal of Peru, Aggrey Sawuka's view of "developing" countries, Celina Hutzler's paper on Brazil, and Miguel Santillan and Alfredo Toro's description of conditions in Ecuador. The papers on Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador do offer some encouragement in that they describe a range of efforts by Deaf people to organize and struggle to overcome...