International Human Rights Day
10/12/07 08:48 Filed in: News
Today
is International Human Rights
Day. Each year on December
10th the international community celebrates the anniversary of the
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Next year, 2008, will
be the 60th Anniversary of this important date in our calendar of
human achievement. Edmund Rice International is committed to
promoting this Anniversary, as are indeed many other NGOs
throughout the world. It is important for us to begin the work of
promulgating and implementing in our own spheres of action this
significant ethical document.
Without this shared, common statement of human values the world would be a poorer place. Without this document it would be virtually impossible to call states and individuals to account. There was a view widely shared in some quarters that following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Eastern bloc Communism there would be a widespread acceptance of human rights and that the task of promoting them would be easier. The reverse is the case. Our world is more than ever a place where human rights abuses are commonplace.
More significantly, the new battleground of human rights is the sphere of economic, social and cultural rights. These rights to to the heart of who we are as human beings. Over the next ten to fifteen years it will be important for all who believe in the capacity of the human person to live with dignity and to struggle for a better and more human life for all human beings to become human rights defenders.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
Without this shared, common statement of human values the world would be a poorer place. Without this document it would be virtually impossible to call states and individuals to account. There was a view widely shared in some quarters that following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Eastern bloc Communism there would be a widespread acceptance of human rights and that the task of promoting them would be easier. The reverse is the case. Our world is more than ever a place where human rights abuses are commonplace.
More significantly, the new battleground of human rights is the sphere of economic, social and cultural rights. These rights to to the heart of who we are as human beings. Over the next ten to fifteen years it will be important for all who believe in the capacity of the human person to live with dignity and to struggle for a better and more human life for all human beings to become human rights defenders.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography