International Human Rights Day

A long path to be followed

Human Rights Day takes place annually across the world on December 10th. Every year the date is marked with a series of events, promoted by the United Nations, or other institutions fighting for the human rights. Even the simpliest actions, like blogging about the day, can help spreading the word about the human rights protection


By GABRIELA ZAGO
from Pelotas, BRAZIL


"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood". These words constitute the first article on the International Human Rights Declaration, proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in December 10th 1948, three years after the ending of The Second World War. Today, almost 60 years later, we can see the much we've gained in terms of defense and affirmation of human rights. However, there are still many other things to be done.

The necessity of an international human rights protection started to be discussed largely after the horrors that happened during the Second World War. Until then, human rights were treated like something to be solved based only on the local law. Since the War, these rights started to be seen as universal, indivisible and interdependent, what would demand one international organization that could assure that the international protection of these rights could happen in all countries.

It was with that objective that the United Nations Organization was created in 1945. In the first regular session of the Organization, in 1947, the Human Rights Commission elaborated a project for a Human Rights Declaration, that was later approved by a resolution of the General Assembly in December 10th,1948, in Paris, France. The 30 articles of the Human Rights Declaration are a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights.

The Human Rights Day takes place since 1950 on the anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration. Every year, the UN promotes events dedicated to Human Rights. All other organizations are invited to do their events too. The date is marked by political conferences and meetings, and by cultural events and exhibitions. It is also in this date that the five-yearly United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights are awarded.

Last year, on December 10th, 2007, the UN started the celebrations for the 60 years of the proclamation of the International Human Rights Declaration. The events will reach a higher point by the end of this year, on December 10th, 2008.

The most diverse celebrations are made all over the world in the Human Rights Day. In 2007, the lusophone blogosphere organized an online campaign in order to promote the human rights among blogs. In the form of a collective blogging action, the challenge "One World, One Voice" proclaimed bloggers from all over the world to post a blog entry reflecting on the human rights issue on December 10th. The campaign was started by Sam Cyrous, a Portuguese blogger that writes on the Fenix ad eternum blog.

Cyrous's saga in defense of the human rights started on his childhood. He was educated in the Fé Bahá'í religion, based on the love to the humanity, the diversity, and the human values. He started the online campaign in order to make bloggers of any beliefs and from anywhere reflect on these values on the Human Rights Day. When starting the blog action, the expected was to reach at least one hundred people, from all over the world. Other bloggers helped on promoting the campaign, and the official number of participants was 101 blogs, in 12 different countries, that blogged in three different languages (Spanish, English and Portuguese). This number might be slightly larger, since there are people that decided last minute to participate, even though they weren't registered to do so.

A collective voice has a higher chance to be heard rather than an isolated voice. As Cyrous points out, our past could have been different with we had had something with a global reach like blogs and the Internet before: "The Armenian genocide on Turkey or the death of millions of people on concentration camps could have been stopped if one person had announced in their blog what was happening. Imagine, then, the force that a hundred people together would have, in blogs from all countries and in many languages".

This blog campaign for human rights have shown that there are people that are conscious of the problem, people that are interested in changing the world. Cyrous believes that, "from beyond these one hundred people, there are others, and that we all together, gathered on the difference, could change the world. Step by step this might happen, inside and outside the Internet".

What we see are small but important victories in the struggle for equality and freedom all around the world. But there is still a long path to follow before everyone, everywhere, can get to enjoy "universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms", as preconized by the Declaration's preamble. Until then, even the slightest efforts, like blogging about things that bother us regarding the human rights protection, can help make a difference.


(Published: 10.01.2008.)

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