Human Rights and the Promises of Our Leaders

Human Rights are something that, here in America, aren't really thought about until someone we know or care about becomes a victim to them. In some areas in the world everyone knows someone who has had their rights abridged or outright squashed. We've all heard of those places, so I won't go into them here. Just know that for all of our own advancements here in America, the vast majority of humanity has been left behind. Most of Earth's citizens are still waiting to see a world that protects the rights of all humans.

In this sense, our leaders have universally let us down. The role of governments (and the leaders who run them) is supposed to be to protect the rights of their citizens. The thing is, we have trouble making sure that happens here in the US. There are still too many people who are silenced or worse. Sure, it's easy to point to things that have happened under the Bush Administration, but the reality is no US administration has put human rights front and center. In fact, in previous decades and even centuries, the USG has sponsored military actions, coups and even full-blown wars solely in the interest of securing capitalism as the dominant economic system in other countries.

So, when someone talks to you about human rights and how they should be supported, don't think that just because you live in the US or another western country you don't need to worry about them. Here in the US we still have a long way to go. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written sixty years ago, there is a passage about marriage:

Article 16

1. 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. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Guess what Prop 8 over in California is about. Yep. Gay marriage. Stopping gays from getting marriage is a violation of the UDHR. Our leaders shouldn't even allow something like Prop 8 to get put up to a vote since it violates basic human rights. Yet, there it is.

Human rights activist Jack Healy posted about the UDHR's birthday a couple days ago on HuffPo and in that post he said, in part, this in reference to the UDHR:

By the year 2010, 42% of the world will be under the age of 21. As was seen in the recent American election, there is a clamoring for change amongst this demographic. This exists not only for young people at home, but all over the world. When injustice occurs in far corners of the globe, this document empowers the innocent against the oppressor. Just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as an example of justice and equality, so to will this new generation need a rulebook to combat oppression.

Such a rulebook already exists in this Declaration. For 60 years, governments have let this document gather dust in a closet.

...and our governments, across the planet, have let us down.

I'm not an anarchist, but ya know, now that I think about it...

Read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights over at OneDayForHumanRights.com

Hell, I think there should be a 365daysAYearForHumanRights.com!

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Orignal From: Human Rights and the Promises of Our Leaders