The Roots of Rights

On December 10th, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Nowadays, when we think of human rights, what exactly do we think?

Do we think that human rights are nothing to do with us?

That human rights are best left to activists?

Experts.

Professionals.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the UN Commission that wrote the UDHR, had a very different vision of human rights –

In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

Butterfly effects for human rights?

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15 Comments

  1. What happens to ideals unfulfilled? Do they become ideologies? idosicrasies? Stereotipically unreasonably…Idealistic? What happens, really, what happens to ideals still doubting the existance of a horizon? Thanks for referencing, there is alot of work we have to do in the area of…Applied Ideals, before thay all spill their content into the neant of time!

  2. What happens to ideals unfulfilled? Do they become ideologies? idosicrasies? Stereotipically unreasonably…Idealistic? What happens, really, what happens to ideals still doubting the existance of a horizon? Thanks for referencing, there is alot of work we have to do in the area of…Applied Ideals, before thay all spill their content into the neant of time!

  3. Thank you, thank you, and bless you, bless you for most timely reminded of where rights begin. They are rooted in the very center of each of our souls. If we do not water those roots with love, that tree of rights will surely die all over the world!

  4. Thank you, thank you, and bless you, bless you for most timely reminded of where rights begin. They are rooted in the very center of each of our souls. If we do not water those roots with love, that tree of rights will surely die all over the world!

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