UNESCO Celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights

Hello again

So, I am not sure if you know this or not, but last week was the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations (10 Dec). As it turns out, the section of human rights at UNESCO works alongside my section, gender and poverty reduction. This was fortunate for me because on the of day of the celebration I was able to be apart of the organizing staff. This gave me a hands on experience to be part of such an important day; a day that I am thankful for it and critical of the day, all in the same breath.

It was truly amazing to be in this grand hall. I would look to the left and right and there are the rooms where interpreters are translating what is being said for people who need another language. There is a set of head phones at every seat. I have seen pictures of UN Assembly halls, and here I am decorating it and preparing for this event. For in international relations nerd as myself, it was pretty darn cool. (Of course I didn’t bring my camera that day)
Now, the declaration of human rights is a significant document in the UN. It is a symbol of what the UN stands for. The declaration calls upon states to ensure that no person in the world be denied their opportunity to a decent quality of life. In order to celebrate this achievement for the day, the event was broken into three parts: showing a documentary that was made just after the drafting and signing of the Declaration, 60 years ago; speeches by important diplomats and the Director General of UNESCO; and finishing with a documentary of Stephen Hassen, an international developer, who was present at the original signing. I took some time to sit in on each of the sections.

The first section was when I first became critical. I really enjoyed watching the movie and hearing people’s interpretations of what such a wonderful document could mean for the world. There was an interviewer who asked questions to a panel of drafters, an American woman, an American man, a Chinese man, and a British man. He asked them what the declaration meant to each of them and how it was going to have an impact on the world. After their initial remarks, he went to ‘the streets of New York’ to ask ‘regular Joe Blow’ questions. The last question really interested me. A women asked, if someone feels that their human rights are being violated, can he/she go to the UN and plead for help. The panel pretty much agreed that this was a long term goal, but the system needs to set up first for nations who feel another nation is violating human rights to complain, and after this mechanism has been established, branch out for individuals.

We were celebrating the 60th Anniversary and the mechanism for nations is still deplorable. During the speech section of the day, I have to give credit to one of the presenters who admitted that there are violations in the world today. He said there are two main nations in the world today who are culpable as the worst violators - the United States with its human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay and Israel for the fighting that continues to persist between the Palestines and Israelis. I am not going to disagree that these two nations are innocent of human rights violations, but to limit the scope like this is ludicrous. If one takes a step back and looks at the world that we live in today, the number of countries that are violating individual human rights is overwhelming. Name me a country in Africa that is not, in some form or another, violating human rights. Latin America is a better continent, but there are still overwhelming violations taking place. Don’t even get me started on China and the Middle East. Here I am, sitting in the beautiful setting, watching everyone pat themselves on the back and pay lip service to the media, when over sixty years, has this declaration ensured that states improve the quality of life for its citizens? I truly question this.

Furthermore, the UN argues that this issue is at the core of its beliefs. If it is so important to the UN, why is the budget for such an important department so low? On the priority list of funding human rights and poverty is so low it is deplorable. My section, poverty and gender inequality used to be two sections. Funding decided to meld the two and now this combined department barely has enough money to fund staffing for three people. My friend who works in human rights ran out of printer ink the other day. She went to the place to get more and the lady said no, your department has no money, you cannot have any printer ink. It is ridiculous.
And here we are, patting ourselves on the back as to what a great job the UN is doing. Having said this, there are people who work very hard to come up with solutions to the world’s problems. Even though my department has barely any money, there is so much heart there, I cannot help but be proud of the people that I work with. After spending the entire day at the event, I left to go home and 7 pm, but the three paid members of my department (the chief and two consultants) went back to the office to work for a couple of hours to finish up a project. They all work so hard and I give them credit for that. Unfortunately, the UN can’t do anything, it does not have the power. It is up to the nations of the world to do something. The UN is designed to come up with policy solutions to provide to nations to urge them to make change.

I just thought that I would share my comments and feelings on the day. I welcome any feedback anyone has.

Post again soon
xoxox
Leslie

---

---