#StandUp4HumanRights
December 10th is Human Rights Day, an annual observance to commemorate both the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and to educate the world on current global issues. Each year is celebrated by focusing on an aspect of Human Rights. This year, the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the focus of Human Rights Day continues to spotlight the role of the world’s youth in working toward a better future. The United Nations online bookstore contains materials on Human Rights for adults and children. One book, the Illustrated Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is available online, for free, in a digital format making it accessible and understandable for a wider audience, not just children. (Check it out, it’s really cool!)
Although advocates like Greta Thunberg, can be a clear call to the conscience of the world on a single topic, there is currently no leading voice advocating in support of human rights. Even with observances, promotion campaigns, and the obvious need for recognition of universal human rights, it can be difficult for countries to incorporate the ideals into law without powerful support. The Advocates for Human Rights, a non-profit organization dedicated to the implementation of international human rights standards, has analyzed if and how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been incorporated into United States Law. As expected, it’s a mixture of rights that were long ago incorporated into the Constitution and a list of rights where progress has been slow or absent. This analysis includes a brief history of the United States’ movement away from supporting certain human rights and a list of United Nations Treaties that have not been ratified by the United States. Human Rights Watch provides a harsher analysis of the state of human rights in the United States in 2018, calling out specific human rights violations. Human Rights Watch similarly criticizes other countries where human rights violations are occurring. (The full Human Rights Watch World Report 2019 is available online for download.) Until we all take the problem of human rights violations seriously, things will not improve. We need everyone, including the next generation, to take up this cause as strongly as our youth are advocating for addressing climate issues and even call out the clear connection between climate change and human rights violations.
Until then, how can we begin addressing the problems identified by Human Rights Watch and Advocates for Human Rights? Before making any kind of plan, do the research – a good researcher must dig deeper than surface claims and assumptions to evaluate the facts. Include some basic legal research through standard services such as Lexis and Westlaw, but other resources are necessary to gain a broader perspective on Human Rights. Maybe with a small idea and big reserve of determination you can become an advocate to improve human rights everywhere.
To get you started, the law library subscribes to or provides access several databases useful for researching human rights:
Oxford Reports on International Law