International Human Rights Day

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2011

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world every December 10.

On Human Rights Day, we pay tribute to all human rights defenders and ask you to get involved in the global human rights movement.

Human rights belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values.

As a global community, we all share a day in common: Human Rights Day on December 10, when we remember the creation 63 years ago of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted on  December 10, 1948. The date has since served to mark Human Rights Day worldwide. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, as the main UN rights official, and her Office play a major role in coordinating efforts for the yearly observance of Human Rights Day.

It has been a year like no other for human rights. Human rights activism has never been more topical or more vital. And through the transforming power of social media, ordinary people have become human rights activists.

This year, millions of people decided the time had come to claim their rights.

They took to the streets and demanded change.

Many found their voices using the internet and instant messaging to inform, inspire and mobilize supporters to seek their basic human rights.

Social media helped activists organize peaceful protest movements in cities across the globe, at times in the face of violent repression.

Poverty prevails as the gravest human rights challenge in the world. Combating poverty, deprivation and exclusion is not a matter of charity, and it does not depend on how rich a country is. By tackling poverty as a matter of human rights obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime....Poverty eradication is an achievable goal.

Acting alone or in groups within their communities, every day human rights defenders work to end discrimination by campaigning for equitable and effective laws, reporting and investigating human rights violations and supporting victims.

While some human rights defenders are internationally renowned, many remain anonymous and undertake their work often at great personal risk to themselves and their families.

Some human rights defenders are famous, but most are not. They are active in every part of the world, working alone and in groups, in local communities, in national politics and internationally.

They are of all ages and have diverse backgrounds and occupations.

Many are highly qualified people who have special skills as lawyers, journalists, doctors, architects, or teachers: many others have little or no education but they all have in common the fundamental conviction that human rights must be protected and promoted.

Everyone can advance and speak up for human rights no matter who they are or where they are from. Each one of us has the potential to make a difference.

Human rights defender is a title each and every one of us can earn. It is not a role that requires a professional qualification. What it depends on is regard for our fellow human beings, an understanding that we are all entitled to the full range of human rights and a commitment to seeing that ideal become a reality.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s transfer comes a day before the International Human Rights Day, December 10, where human rights group shall commemorate it by reiterating their call to release all political prisoners, while stressing that Arroyo should be nowhere but in jail.

“We continue to demand that Arroyo should be put to a regular jail. Her transfer to VMMC is a special treatment for somebody whom we want to be prosecuted for her crimes. This does not in any way heed our call for justice,” Hustisya secretary general Cristina Guevarra said.

Among the protesters were families of political prisoners, relatives of victims of human rights violations including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, most of them victims during the term of Arroyo.

“Arroyo should go through the process accorded to those who committed crimes against the people. The current government should be reminded that more than her being former president, we are dealing with an election saboteur, plunderer, and a human rights violator. We have almost a decade to prove that,” Guevarra said.