Every December 10th, the United Nations (UN) observes Human Rights Day to commemorate the day on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.
The signing of this bill happened just one day after the signing of The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, more commonly known as the Genocide Convention. Both of these bills made tremendous progress on the front of protecting human rights and assuring a genocide similar to the Holocaust would not take place.
The principles included in the Declaration, such that “all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law” and “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms […] without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” have just as much weight and importance now as they did when the world was recovering from the terror that took place during World War II.
Politicians aimed to stop another genocide at the scale of the Holocaust from taking place, but activists and regular civilians alike have noticed little action to stop the powers that enable this.
The Ethnocide of Uyghurs, a cultural genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, China, is one example of this. This genocide has been met with little action from the UN and its members, with a report in August of 2022 being the only noted action from the foundation.
The report mentions that the Government of the People’s Republic of China has enabled systems of “arbitrary detention and related patterns of abuse since 2017,” though the detention, torture, forced sterilization, sexual violence and forced separation of children have taken place since 2014.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 has also stirred activists and soccer fans worldwide in its choice of venue in Qatar, where homosexuality is considered a crime with punishment for all convicts of up to three years in prison and a fine. According to Rolling Stone, many human-rights groups have also brought attention to the country’s lack of labor reform and worker protection, with a history of migrant exploitation that could amount to indentured servitude.
The death of Grant Wahl, an American journalist who had previously attempted to enter a World Cup game with a rainbow-colored shirt, brought attention to the many warnings human-rights groups had issued regarding the hosting of the world cup in Qatar after Wahls’ brother announced his brother’s death on Instagram and made a statement on his Instagram.
“I am gay. I am the reason he wore the rainbow shirt to the World Cup,” Eric Wahl said.
“My brother was healthy. He told me he received death threats. I do not believe my brother just died. I believe he was killed, and I’m just begging for any help.”
Wahl has now made his Instagram private.
Though these issues seem out of reach and hard to handle, it is important to bring awareness to Human Rights Day each year to remind oneself and those around one that human rights are inalienable, no matter the country one resides in or the communities one may be a part of.
Miami Lakes Educational Center’s own National English Honor Society remembered the day with a ‘name tag’ event that allowed students to dawn on the aspects that made each of them human.
“Participating in Human Rights Day brings awareness,” says freshman Maggie Cardenache.
“Without the participation of multiple people, there will be no change. One person can say something, but it’s only until a group gets together that a cause will be heard.”
Actions like wearing name tags, though they may seem small, contribute to the general public’s acknowledgment of one of the most important principles regarded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
