Human Rights Day!

Paying Homage on Dec 10

Human Rights – Capping off a year where millions took to the streets and demand change throughout the world, Human Rights Day is taking place on Dec. 10 to pay tribute to human rights defenders and examine the transformational role of social media.

Human Rights Day celebrates the inception of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on Dec. 10, 1948. The UDHR consists of a preamble and 20 articles, all of which serve to establish a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all men and women, everywhere in the world, are entitled, without any distinction.

The Declaration was drafted utilizing representatives of all regions and legal traditions, allowing it to over time become accepted as a contract between governments and their peoples. It has also “served as the foundation for an expanding system of human rights protection that today focuses also on vulnerable groups such as disabled persons, indigenous peoples and migrant workers.”

In New York, the High Commissioner for Human Rights will host a global conversation on human rights through social media on Friday, Dec. 9 at 9:30 a.m. EST.

On the same day at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, there will be a dialogue focusing on social media, including a discussion of the extraordinary events of the past year.

Other events that will mark Human Rights Day this year around the world include a seminar on human rights defenders and social media in Cairo, Egypt; social media campaigns on human rights in Mexico and Cameroon; a panel discussion in Nairobi, Kenya on the use of social media and new technologies to advocate for human rights; and a human rights film festival and concert in Yerevan, Armenia.

Read moare at UN and UN.

Photo: Lyudmila Alexeyeva, human rights activist and one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group | Reuters