Please Stop Cancel Culture From Undermining The UDHR

This petition is to express concern that the trend referred to as 'cancel culture' is regularly undermining the protections of people living in countries whose governments signed and ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Cancel culture is effectively supplanting the UDHR. This is a very dangerous trend that needs to be halted urgently.

The country most affected is my own, the United Kingdom (UK). The UK government have irresponsibly encouraged cancel culture as part of the Ukraine conflict. And the UK government are now using cancel culture to threaten media companies into cancelling people such as Russell Brand.

Continuing down this cancel culture road would mean that in the future, a crime carried out by a member of the community, say someone from the Islamic community, could lead to that entire community and all traces of their culture erased. We see the beginning of this already with intolerance throughout Europe growing, leading to the Muslim Holy Book being burned and Muslim dress being banned.

Cancel culture is a type of lynch mob hysteria that ignores all laws and crushes anyone or anything that gets in its way. It is extremely dangerous and has no place in any civilised society. No one is safe from cancel culture. One day it will be aimed at right wing politics, the next at left wing. Those politicians resorting to cancel culture today will tomorrow be victims of it.

While an individual might avoid or boycott a situation that offends them or causes distress, they do not have right to ask that human rights are cancelled for individuals or groups.

The UK government encouraged the discrimination of all Russian and Belarusian sports persons. The UK Opposition government (the Labour Party) threatened to dismiss 11 Members of Parliament who supported Stop the War. Anti war advocates such as George Galloway have been dubbed as Foreign Agents, harassed, cancelled and even imprisoned. The position of the UN is that all parties must negotiate. Therefore anti war advocates are the only group following the advice from the UN. The UK and other governments continue to defy the UN by supplying lethal weapons.

The UN apparently advised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to not discriminate against Russian and Belarusian sports persons. The IOC did not follow your advice. They made a token gesture of unbanning Russians but still treat Russians with discrimination. They continue to treat them differently to other athletes, contrary to UDHR Articles 1, 2 and 7 stating that we should not be treated with discrimination. The IOC did not send Russia an invite to the 2024 Olympics, they still ban the Russian flag, anthem and national team despite that all these pre-date the Ukraine conflict and so cannot reasonably be said to be connected with the conflict. These are a part of Russian culture. No other athletes other than those from Russia and Belarus are treated in this discriminatory way.

We have seen cancel culture used against actor Kevin Spacey, with every attempt to erase his presence from existence. Yet Mr Spacey was then found not guilty. Political figures like Nigel Farage had his bank account stopped. Now the UK government are making every effort to erase actor Russell Brand from existence, despite that he has not been charged of any crime. Under Article 11 Mr Brand is innocent until proven guilty.

The government encouraging social media to stop a person being able to earn money, as in Mr Brand's case, would seem to violate Articles 22 and 23 protecting our right to access employment an earn money from this.

We also have a right to express our opinions and hold whatever political views we choose, under Articles 18, 19 and 20. And Article 30 states no government, group or individual should act in a way that would destroy the rights and freedoms of the UDH. Therefore, businesses cancelling persons such as Nigel Farage because of his political views would seem to violate Article 30.