Big Picture: My Take on the UDHR

This blog is joining in the initiative to spend the next year raising awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – culminating with the 60th anniversary on December 10, 2008. We have decided to use this forum to delve into the document and look at each of the 30 individual articles of the declaration. We hope that if people see how fundamental these rights are but how often they are violated, people would be more moved to act.

What I have noticed already is that many of these rights are things that Americans hold dear. And the major violations throughout the world are things we wouldn't stand for here. Whether it is 27,000 rapes in one province in one year, forcing children to fight a war, an overall lack of rights for women, sex trafficking, or torture, if it was happening in the US, there would be immediate outrage and action.

The uphill battle we have as advocates for human rights across the world is that people choose to distinguish between Americans and others – between us and them. Our goal then is not only to raise awareness that this document exists, but to make people believe that humanity everywhere shares a common bond. There needs to be outrage when rights are violated no matter where it is happening and who it is happening to. This will not be easy and is likely to be not just a yearlong effort, but a lifelong effort. But for my mind, I can't think of a more worthwhile mission.