Everyday you’re denied your basic human rights because of your race or sex. You are seen as lesser and therefore, you are not entitled to basic rights such as the right to life, liberty and the security of person. It has been this way for years and you wonder when it will stop.
In the 1940’s people lived this way before the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. It outlined for the first time fundamental human rights to be applied all over the world. There are thirty human rights outlined in this declaration. This document proclaims the inalienable rights to which every human being is entitled to regardless of their race, sex, political opinion or other opinion.
This monumental event is observed every year on the 10th of December. This year marks sixty-nine years since the UDHR was drafted by the UN. Sixty-nine years filled with major improvement. The UDHR was just the start of equality for our world.
Since basic human rights such as freedom from torture and slavery, and the right to equality were put in place by the UN, major improvement has occurred. The right to equality can be seen the most throughout the United States. There are no longer large inequalities between different races or genders and many freedoms have been adopted.
If the United Nations never came together to draft this document the world as we know it would be different. Where would we be as a nation, how different would the world be if we still lived like the 1940’s? I hope you appreciated how far we have come by observing Human Rights Day this past Sunday, December 10th.