International Human Rights Day was this past Wednesday, marking the 60th Anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The student groups sponsored by the Center for Peace & Justice Education helped Philosophy professor Dr. Sally Scholz honor this day and bring the violation of these rights back to the forefront of our consciousness. Just Food helped read the declaration and also posted materials relating our work as a group to human rights, particularly in the following categories:
Work & Rest
Article 23
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Nutrition and Health
Article 25
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Education
Article 26
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
We had lots of information at the event, but a few particularly interesting stories can be found here (farm worker slavery in the U.S.), here (food insecurity forces children to quit school in Kenya), and here (link between spread of HIV and lack of food security in Uganda).
At the event, Dr. Scholz reminded us that just reading the declaration is a political action, as we draw our own attention and the attention of others to the beliefs we hold about every person having value and the right to a good life. When we assert these beliefs by reading them aloud and educating ourselves about how they are manifested or denied throughout the world, we become more able to work toward ensuring them for all, while we also help ourselves to treasure those rights we enjoy without taking them for granted.
Work & RestArticle 23
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Nutrition and Health
Article 25
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Education
Article 26
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
We had lots of information at the event, but a few particularly interesting stories can be found here (farm worker slavery in the U.S.), here (food insecurity forces children to quit school in Kenya), and here (link between spread of HIV and lack of food security in Uganda).
At the event, Dr. Scholz reminded us that just reading the declaration is a political action, as we draw our own attention and the attention of others to the beliefs we hold about every person having value and the right to a good life. When we assert these beliefs by reading them aloud and educating ourselves about how they are manifested or denied throughout the world, we become more able to work toward ensuring them for all, while we also help ourselves to treasure those rights we enjoy without taking them for granted.
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