For many people around the world, December is a time to reflect on colored lights and bright wrapping paper; candles, snow, the smell of baked cookies, family and friends, and the spirit of giving. But while December is most often dedicated to the many holidays that inhabit it, there is one particular day of the month that seems lost in shadow. In fact, I only just heard about it this morning while browsing through, of all things, my Instagram feed.
Indeed, this was never a day I heard advertised within the classrooms at school. And it’s not a day I’ve heard mention of in the various news sources that I tend to gravitate toward. Yet it seems fitting, especially during this season that supposedly celebrates peace and togetherness, that it should be acknowledged now.
Today is Human Rights Day.
Historically, the 10th of December marks the day the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (un.org). Drafted in 1948, this document declares basic standards and values that are guaranteed to belong to every human being from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Similar to the Articles listed in the United States’ Declaration of Independence, the UDHR states that everyone is entitled to life, liberty, and security regardless of “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (ohchr.org).
The beauty of this declaration is that it was discussed and put together by a group of diverse legal and cultural experts from around the world (un.org), so it is obviously thorough and legitimate in its structure when it comes to what is fair.
But the unfortunate reality is that many people remain ignorant of or cut off from even the most basic of human rights. Looking at the world today, we can observe that such rights as our right to privacy, the right to a chosen nationality, the right to peaceably assemble, the right to education, the right to marry, the right to be treated equally within the law, the right to equal pay and a salary ensuring a person and their family “an existence worthy of human dignity,” even the right to “rest and leisure” (ohchr.org) are constantly being bombarded by political and economic power plays. And while we remain ignorant—or, even worse: silent—about it, people everywhere are being treated as less than human.
This is especially true now, with a nation deep in the throes of a pandemic, and the UN has so acknowledged this with its 2020 theme: “Recover Better.” All across the United States, systematic inequalities and discrimination are keeping people without homes, without food, and without healthcare, during a time when everyone needs those basic human securities the most.
This is wrong. And so, on this Human Rights Day, let us make sure that we know what’s right. Please visit the links below; brush up on your UDHR, and share it with your loved ones. This document was created in unity, and only in unity can we bring ourselves out of the dark. Know your rights, and fight to protect them. Not just for you, but for your fellow human beings as well.
Happy Human Rights Day.
Human Rights Day | United Nations
ABC MEP Annexes V4 (ohchr.org)
— C.Q.
