Saturday, December 10, 2011

Today is International Human Rights Day


Today is known as Human Rights Day or International Human Rights Day.

Eleanor Roosevelt of the United States holding a Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948 in Paris. The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are entitled

Here is an abbreviated list of the Articles passed on 12/10/1948

Article 1 - All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Article 2 - Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. .

Article 3 - Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4 - No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5 - No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6 - Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7 - All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

Article 8 - Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law

Article 9 - No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10 - Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11 - Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

Article 12 - No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13 - Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

Article 14 - Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

Article 15 - Everyone has the right to a nationality.

Article 16 - Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.

Article 17 - Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

Article 18 - Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19 - Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Article 20 - Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Article 21 - Everyone has the right to take part in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

Article 22 - Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security.

Article 23 - Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

Article 24 - Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25 - Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Article 26 - Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.

Article 27 - Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

Article 28 - Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29 - Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

Article 30 - Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

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I hope that you will read each Article slowly and let in be absorbed within. All of these beliefs were recorded 62 years ago. Do you think that they have been enforced around the world? It is important for us to remember that they are in place and that we should do everything that we can to be fair to all people no matter who they are or where they live.

December 10, 2011 - International Human Rights Day

peacesojourner


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