Risk, a right like safety?

Reading Time: 3 min
Translation: Régine Paradis

“The greatest danger in life is to take too many precautions.” – Alfred Adler

It is very interesting to read this quote. We can easily deduce that being too cautious is risky.

Let’s venture the following question: Are risk and safety both sides of the same coin? Just as life and death are inseparable realities.
So how come the right to risk is not enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Let us not lose sight of the fact that this Declaration was drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War, in 1948. The context of the time favored the writing of Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

In the current societal context, we may feel that this statement is being undermined. For example, the quote from lawyer Julius Grey: “Can their belief in their right to freedom override the Charter right to life and safety of others? There will be a battle, which is not far-fetched, but the anti-vaccine people will lose it.” One wonders if this lawyer, who specializes in questions of individual liberties, has lost sight of the recitals on which the Declaration is based.

Without elaborating on the entire contents, here is at least one of the recitals in the preamble of the Declaration : Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.

Since March 2020, measures announced as protective of our health, safety, and even our lives have resulted in making risk and death inconceivable, even unthinkable. If our equal and inalienable rights, among others, are a foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world, then why go to the barricades when a human being asserts his freedom to choose between safety and risk, consequently between life and death?

The climate of fear, fed by the narrative of government, traditional media and institutions, reinforces the right to safety and thereby the right to life. Since the right to risk and even to die is not enshrined in the Universal Declaration, it is difficult to assert these choices. Specifically, when the fear of risk and death is propagated by a majority that deems irresponsible those who are not afraid. “You can judge me as selfish, unconscious or dangerous: it is your choice to live judging others and in fear. I don’t have to justify my own choices and especially my choice to live without any fear, even and especially not the one of judgment of others.” – Raël

Equal and inalienable rights are as much for a majority that favors the right to safety and life as for a minority that favors the right to risk and even death. “The opinion of the majority must never undermine individual rights.” – Brigitte Boisselier

There is a great irony. People with a need to be in absolute safety for fear of dying do not seem to realize that they are taking a risk. The adverse effects of the health measures they praise are increasingly emerging .
Are we at a time when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights needs to be revised?

The awareness following the war has created the urgency to establish guidelines so that the disregard of human rights does not lead to acts of barbarism. The current context, where the single thought dictates what is good to do to protect oneself at all costs, has provoked a strong reaction from the conscious minority. That of extracting oneself from a world sick with an excess of security. An excess, not to live but to avoid dying. Which is to say that the fear of living has become fixed in the majority. Caught between the fear of dying and the fear of living, how is it possible to blossom? To be happy? Knowing that “To choose security is to decide not to grow anymore.” – Olivier Lockert
“… on the day when one must die, one dies. (…) It is not by slowing down life that one avoids death.” – Florence Arthaud, navigator.

This quote illustrates that risk is the spice of life. “Risk is life! To live is to risk!” – Raël. To do so, it is necessary that the right to risk be included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the Declaration, on December 10, 2020, a Raelian delegation submitted an official document proposing an amendment to Article 3 which reads: Everyone has the right to life, liberty, security of person, and risk.

Rachel Bluteau, Columnist
Canadian Raelian Movement
[1] Safety: term enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 3 “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
[2] Journal Métro: Quebec government considers to require proof of vaccination for some activities – December 10, 2020
[3] https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
[4] In French only (The Fears): Les peurs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fjNwlWr1WU&feature=share
[5] In French only https://fr.raelianews.org/le-mouvement-raelien-soppose-a-la-vaccination-obligatoire.html
[6] In French only https://covidinfos.net/  and  In French only https://reinfocovid.fr/
[7] Lists of health measures: https://publications.msss.gouv.qc.ca/msss/en/
[8] Words of Maitreya, A to Z: http://raelcanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Maitreyas-words-70-a.H.-EN.pdf p. 90
[9] https://raelcanada.org/raelians-propose-an-amendment-to-article-3-of-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights/
[10] https://www.rael.org/events/human-rights-day/