Human Rights Day
Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Wiki Commons
Today we’d like to announce the publication of Kris Wightman’s in-depth article on the current state of the healthcare system in Afghanistan and the efforts being made to rebuild it. Read about it here.
Meanwhile, today’s blog is on the UN Human Rights Day
Certain members of societies all over the world are being denied rights because of race, colour, creed or gender
Last week the Lancet Student finished its blog series on the Amnesty International 2009 human rights report, which set out to illustrate the violations of human rights around the world. It is fitting that a week later, December 10th, marks the UN Human Rights Day. The day was first marked on December 10th 1950 to mark the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly on that day two years earlier. This year’s day focuses on non-discrimination.
Discrimination is at the heart of many of the human rights violations covered in the Amnesty report: certain members of societies all over the world being denied rights because of race, colour, creed or gender. The UN lists the main types of discrimination worldwide: discrimination against indigenous peoples, against migrants, against minorities, against the disabled, against women and against those of a different race or religion. A statement from the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights elaborates that despite many people embracing tolerance and diversity, discrimination is still common. Women work two thirds of the world’s working hours but only earn 10% of the world’s income, and physical and sexual abuse of women and girls is still rife. 370 million indigenous people in the world make up 15% of its poorest people and continue to be denied basic rights and services. Other minorities continue to be prevented from fully taking part in their society on grounds of race or religion. It is a sad statement of the presence of discrimination throughout the world that very few countries have truly universal healthcare or education systems.
As part of Human Rights Day, the UN High Commissioner is calling on people to spread the word of discrimination issues both locally on a wider level. Whether this informing those at work, in the local area or at university, diversity and non-discrimination should be highlighted to as many people as possible using activities, seminars and even sporting events. People should also lobby their governments to ensure that they abide by international human rights laws in all their actions and policies. But most importantly, the UN calls everyone to continue to work against discrimination after Human Rights Day, because it is only once groups are no longer set apart and ignored that human rights can truly be universal.