Quote of the Day
“Everyone has the right … to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and principles and to advocate their acceptance.”
— Article 7, United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. Its provisions recognize not only the work of established organizations, but the right of ordinary people to promote human rights, share information about them, meet peacefully and propose new human-rights ideas.
I like the word new in that sentence.
Because many things we now accept as obvious were not always treated that way.
Someone had to ask why a woman should not vote.
Someone had to challenge the idea that a person could own another human being.
Someone had to say that a child with a disability belonged in school too.
Human rights do not grow only inside courtrooms or international conferences. Sometimes they begin with an uncomfortable question asked in an ordinary place.
Why is this person being treated differently?
Why can’t she enter this building?
Why are we silent about this?
Not every new idea is a good one, of course. It must survive evidence, argument and the rights of others.
But a society also needs room for people to question what has become normal.
Because sometimes what is normal is precisely what needs to change.
Source: OHCHR — Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
Did You Know?
You do not need a special title to be a human rights defender.
When we hear the words human rights defender, it is easy to imagine someone with an office in Geneva, an international organization behind them and perhaps a microphone in front of them.
The UN definition is much broader.
The 1998 Declaration says everyone has the right, alone or with others, to promote and work for the protection and realization of human rights. It also recognizes rights to meet peacefully, form or join groups, communicate with organizations, obtain human-rights information, publish and share it, discuss how rights are being respected in practice, and draw public attention to problems.
That can look very ordinary.
A parent asking why a child with a disability is being excluded from school.
A journalist documenting abuse.
A women’s group challenging violence in its community.
A lawyer defending someone whose rights have been violated.
Or citizens peacefully asking public authorities to do better.
The declaration also says states should protect people against violence, threats, retaliation, discrimination or pressure resulting from the legitimate exercise of these rights.
This does not mean that calling ourselves human rights defenders places us above the law or gives us permission to harm others. The Declaration speaks specifically about peaceful human-rights activity within a legal framework consistent with international human-rights obligations.
But there is something powerful in the basic idea.
Defending human dignity is not a profession reserved for a chosen few.
Sometimes it begins when an ordinary person sees something wrong and decides not to look away.
Sources
For discussion: Have we made human-rights advocacy sound so specialized that ordinary people no longer realize they have a place in it?
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