There are numerous works that can be reviewed for this paper. In the same manner, there are a lot of people who can be considered as the topic. In this case, however, the one chosen was John Hume, particularly the speech that he gave when he was awarded as one of the recipients of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize together with David Trimble. This speech is remarkable mainly because not everyone gets entitled to receive this prize. It is more than just an honor; it is a product and recognition of one’s life work, a feedback that tells that one has not just done something that is right but one that is great and impacting as well. That is exactly the case with John Hume. As a renowned politician and one of the founding members of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, he helped forge and cement the Northern Ireland peace process.
Background
The United Kingdom, as its name implies, is a collection of kingdoms, united together to form a single country. It uses an essentially similar model like that of the United States—only that it is composed of numerous states to form a country under a federal form of government. The United Kingdom is, in fact, one of the pioneers of this kind of government. Since the middle Ages, Great Britain managed to gain an almost unfair advantage economically and militarily against its rivals when it successfully united Ireland, Scotland, and England .
Certainly, the size its entire territory varied as it managed to annex more lands and lose some in the process, up until this day when its current boundaries have been pretty much cemented thanks to the work of people like John Hume who encouraged people from various factions to stay united. Scotland, for example, originally did not want to become a part of the United Kingdom, so is Ireland. However, it was thanks to England’s long history of political tactics that it managed to create a United Kingdom, the one that people know of today.
One of the latest violence-riddled secessionist movements that occurred in the UK was one perpetrated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary organization that attempted to push for the removal of Northern Ireland from the UK . Evidently, that did not happen as a ceasefire agreement that was skillfully brokered by key people like John Hume and other representatives of the participating parties eventually led to a successfully executed peace process.
Receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize was Evidence of the Ordinary People’s Hard Work and Dedication
One of the clear messages that Hume expressed in his speech was the one that suggests that his receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 was not just a product of his efforts. Although he is indeed one of the key people who helped broker a deal between the separatists and the United Kingdom’s government, that deal would not have paved the way for an eventual resolution of the violence-ridden conflict if not for the effort and dedication of the involved parties, particularly the ordinary people from Northern Ireland to really push through for a peaceful agreement. The same can be true for the government. The separatist groups would have been forced to defend their claimed territories and of course themselves had the government opted to use force—which they could easily have done, instead of pushing through with the already brokered deal by John Hume and several others. In his victory speech, Hume extended his gratitude to the people, suggesting that the achievement and honor that he received that night would not have been possible without everyone’s cooperation during the momentous and emotion-filled moments leading to the official end of the conflict.
Then again, Hume was one of the most influential people during that conflict and he had the option and the authority to influence certain sides to instigate more tension and escalate the conflict ongoing between the separatist movements and the UK government, leading of course to heightened levels of violence, death tolls, and even a new era of war for the people in the UK, particularly those in Northern Ireland where much of the fights have been ongoing. Evidently, he chose to be the person who prioritized peace more than anything else and as a result, UK managed to stay united and fast forward to today, its people, despite the diversity which he also recognized in his speech, still stand proudly and side by side.
Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
One of the parts of his speech that the author of this paper wants to pay special attention would be the part where he mentioned the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to him that day “is also the day that is associated internationally with the support of peace and work for peace because the basis of peace and stability in any society has to be the fullest respect for the human rights of all of its people” . This implies that the principle that he used as a basis for all the decisions that he made during the events that led to the Good Friday Agreement was the principle of the universality of human rights. For example, he would not have been on the side that yearned for the forging of a peaceful resolution for the conflict if he was a person who blatantly disregarded people of Northern Ireland’s rights to peace and a bright, conflict-free future.
The unexpected turn of events that united all of Europe
The events prior to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement were horrific. They were violent . A lot of people died and got injured in the conflicts that ensued as a result of the agreements of the two opposing sides. In his speech, Hume likened the situations that he witnessed in the United Kingdom to the ones that he also witnessed and are vividly described by history books after the Second World War. According to him, the challenge that the UK was experiencing at that time was similar in a lot of ways to the one that Europe encountered after the two World Wars. Nobody expected that Europe would later on (some 30 years after the latest war) emerge as one peaceful coalition of countries (as evidenced by the European Union) to the point that had he prophesized that Europe would finally be peaceful during the end of the Second World War, he would have been immediately sent to a psychiatrist—which he quipped in his speech. Apparently, this specific turn of events—that got Europe united, surprised him as well, just like everyone else who were bracing for an even bigger wave of conflicts after the most recent wars.
The Anatomy of Conflicts
Perhaps the most important part, theme, or thesis of his speech was when he discussed why conflicts happen, what causes them to continuously reoccur. Hume is a person who has witnessed a lot of conflicts unfold and get resolved and according to the message he delivered in his speech, all of those conflicts had one common denominator and that is difference. He mentioned that “all conflict is about difference, whether the difference is race, religion, or nationality” . This is, in fact, why he repeatedly referenced the importance of one’s recognition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—because this entitles everyone the right to become different.
Like many others, John Hume is a firm believer of the notion that individual differences are what makes humans a human . This belief indeed has a lot of merits. For one, this belief of his is what led him to decide to influence various groups involved in the UK secessionist movement-related conflict to drop down their arms and work with the government towards a more peaceful process. He also managed to convince both sides that the acts of the other side would be done in good faith and that they were both after the same thing—resolution of the conflict (at least for the UK government) and the recognition of individual differences (for the part of the secessionist groups). In the end, Hume, together with other key negotiators, managed to create a successful peace process that once again prevented the UK from falling apart.
Summary
All in all, these key points are all related to the Civil Rights Movement that happened in the United States. For one, Hume talked about differences. The Civil Rights Movement in the US was also about differences, although the latter was about color and race instead of political ideologies. Additionally, it was also largely about Human Rights. Colored people are entitled to have the same set of human rights just like normal non-colored people and this is in fact one of the key arguments that rationalized the Civil Rights Movement. Basically, the secessionist movement that UK experienced was similar in a lot of ways to the Civil Rights Movement.
Works Cited
BBC. "The Good Friday Agreement." BBC History (2016): http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/good_friday_agreement. Web. 03 June 2016.
Gregory, K. "Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) (aka, PIRA, "the provos," Óglaigh na hÉireann) (UK separatists)." Council on Foreign Relations (2010): http://www.cfr.org/separatist-terrorism/provisional-irish-republican-army-ira-aka-pira-provos-oglaigh-na-heireann-uk-separatists/p9240. Web. 03 June 2016.
Hume, John and David Trumble. "Nobel Peace Prize 1998." Nobel Prize (1998): 01. 03 June 2016.
Macinnes, Allan. "Acts of Union: The Creation of the United Kingdom." BBC History (2011): http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/acts_of_union_01.shtml. Web. 03 June 2016.
Moorman, R. and G. Blakely. "Individualism, collectivism, as an individual difference predictor of organizational citizenship behavior." Journal of Organizational Behavior (1995): 127-142. Print. 03 June 2016.
