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UN Marks Human Rights Day with New Campaign
Haider Rizvi
OneWorld US
Tue., Dec. 11, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 10 (OneWorld) - The United Nations today launched a worldwide campaign to stop human rights abuses and violations by governments, private businesses and others.

The year-long UN campaign was kicked off Monday on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, marking the 59th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"The Declaration remains as relevant today as it did on the day it was adopted," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in announcing the new campaign. "But the fundamental freedoms enshrined in it are still not a reality."

"Too often governments lack the political will to implement international norms they had willingly accepted," he noted in a statement.

The Universal Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Since then, it has inspired the constitution of many newly independent states and democracies. Reflecting global values of equality and justice, the Declaration has been translated into more than 360 languages.

"It's a chance to ensure that [human] rights are a living reality - that they are known, understood, and enjoyed by every one, everywhere," said Ki-moon of the UN campaign, which is aimed at highlighting the principles of fundamental rights.

International civil society activists also expressed concerns over the global status of human rights.

"Human rights are being violated, neglected and eroded with audacity and impunity by governments, businesses and armed groups," said Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International.

In Khan's view, despite some progress, many governments have failed to convert their human rights rhetoric into reality.

"While world leaders remind us every day of the threats of weapons of mass destruction, the sale and transfer of small arms, which kill a thousand people a day, continues unabated," she said.

Khan, whose group monitors human rights violations worldwide, expressed particular concern over the world community's failure to stop ongoing human rights abuses in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Burma, and Pakistan.

"In Darfur, murder, rape, and violence continue unabated," she said. "In Zimbabwe, human rights defenders and political dissidents are being attacked, tortured, and thrown into prisons without a fair trial."

The Amnesty leader criticized the international community for its weak response to human rights violations in the Middle East and massive crackdowns on democracy activists in Burma and Pakistan.

Without naming the United States, Khan deplored Washington's global strategy for countering terrorism, noting that it has "undermined the fundamental principles of human rights, while extremists have unleashed a downward spiral of violence that has endangered the lives of ordinary people."

Despite these concerns, both the UN and civil society expressed the hope that a vigorous campaign could yield positive results.

"It is difficult to say what a fundamental shift the Declaration represented when it was adopted about 60 years ago," said Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Arbour continued: "In a post-war world scarred by Holocaust, divided by colonialism and wracked by inequality, a charter setting out the first global and solemn commitment to the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings was a bold and daring undertaking."

An essential element in the protection of human rights, she added, is "a widespread knowledge and understanding among people of what their rights are and how they can be defended."

The campaign theme for both the day and the year is "Dignity and justice for all of us." To mark the 59th anniversary of the Declaration, UN officials plan a wide range of activities, including several events organized by UN Information Centers located in many cities across the world.

Cuba makes human rights promise

Cuba is going to sign up to two major United Nations agreements on civil and political rights, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque confirmed.
Legally binding protocols on economic, social and cultural issues, and civil and political rights, make up the UN Bill of Human Rights.

Communist Cuba is one of the countries which has never signed up.

The news came as government supporters shouted down dissidents marking the UN's international human rights day.

When it signs up to the protocols early next year, Cuba will commit to allowing freedom of expression and association and the right to travel abroad, among other things.

Just a few streets from the foreign ministry, a small group of opposition activists were mobbed and shouted down by government supporters, as they tried to hold a march.

Dissidents reported that police also picked up several key march organisers in the hours before the event, apparently in an attempt to prevent it taking place.

But the treatment of the dissidents, the BBC's Michael Voss reports from Havana, was a reminder that old approaches continue.

Western diplomats in Havana describe the foreign minister's announcement as an important first step, but are now awaiting to see whether and how it will be implemented, our correspondent adds.

« EuroNews to broadcast in Arabic in 2008Radio Realidad: the popular voice in Honduras » EBU President calls for more action to protect journalists In a keynote speech to the World Electronic Media Forum on the International Day of Human Rights, Fritz Pleitgen, President of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) called for a new initiative to save the lives of journalists, and to roll back a trend towards repression of freedom of expression. “Journalists are being killed in record numbers in pursuit of their profession - 171 so far this year - sometimes simply for getting too near to uncomfortable truths,” the EBU President said. “And if journalists stop telling the truth, or exercise self-censorship, there can be no true freedom of expression or genuine democratic debate.” Mr Pleitgen urged all those present to share a new vision “in which free media, conveying the free opinions of majorities and minorities the world over, promote and guarantee democracy, development and human rights”. And he said there was plenty of room for improvement in all regions of the world. The conference devoted a special session to the safety of journalists at which EBU Director General Jean Réveillon stressed that journalists must be protected in their task of seeking and imparting information. He noted, “Dead journalists don’t write ….. But neither do many journalists who take good note of attacks on their colleagues, and who are quite understandably intimidated into silence”. New initiatives discussed included raising awareness in all countries, identifying media representatives as a specific category of civilians under international war crimes law, and protecting journalists in non-conflict zones. (Source: EBU)