Human Rights Day 2010

Today is Human Rights Day, a United Nations celebration that marks the date, December 10, 1948, when the General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The current High Commissioner for Human Rights in the United Nations, Navi Pillay, gave a speech at a special event in Geneva to mark the day.  One of her themes was that “criticism is not a crime,” and she advocated for governments “to release all those people who have been detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms to defend democratic principles and human rights.”  She also called for recognition of human rights defenders, not only those whose names have become famous everywhere but also the  “hundreds of thousands of largely unsung heroes, known collectively as human rights defenders.”

One useful human rights resource is the website of the Human Rights Education Association, an international initiative that serves governmental, inter-governmental, and non-governmental organizations, as well as individuals, who are interested in learning more about human rights.  There are distance learning materials for adults as well as various curriculum resources for educators who want to develop educational materials for children.

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