Members of the Elders Group meet with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, December 7, 2008 in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)
December 10, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How is the day is being honored and what current events are affecting human rights law?
The Elders, an organization dedicated to easing human suffering, and which is composed of such world leaders and statesmen as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, partnered with similarly minded groups to launch the Every Human Has Rights campaign a year ago today. The campaign, which is still going strong, asks individuals worldwide to call on governments to “uphold and protect” human rights.
Amnesty International, which is part of the Every Human Has Rights campaign, has also joined with the Irish Times this past year to publish a series of pieces by well-known Irish writers about the UDHR; Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney wrote the first one, “Human Rights, Poetic Redress.”
Today, the General Assembly of the United Nations is considering the new Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. If approved, it would give a right of individual complaint concerning the rights to health, housing, education, etc.
And what does the world think about the UDHR? The World Public Opinion found that a majority in 25 nations polled support most of the principles set out in the UDHR, and a majority in most of those countries believe that the UN should have the “power to go into countries to investigate human rights abuses.”
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Kate Davey
Co-founder & Audience Development
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