LAUNCHED ON 10 DECEMBER 2023, HUMAN RIGHTS DAY IN THE YEAR OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, endures as a foundational document in the history of human rights. The 75th anniversary of the UDHR in 2023 is an opportunity to reflect on the progress made, the challenges overcome, and the future of human rights. This milestone anniversary is not only a time for reflection but also an opportunity to innovate in how we educate, communicate, and embed human rights culture into our daily lives. It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, on the 10th anniversary of the UDHR:
‘Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person – the neighborhood he lives in, the factory, farm, or office where he works.’
Eleanor Roosevelt
Since its inception, the UDHR has served as a guiding beacon for global human rights standards, enshrining fundamental rights and freedoms for all, irrespective of race, religion, gender, or nationality. Its 30 articles encompass a wide range of rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security; freedom from slavery and torture; the right to a fair trial; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; and the right to work and education. Over the past 75 years, the UDHR has inspired countless individuals and organisations to fight for justice and equality, leading to significant progress in human rights protection and promotion around the world.
However, the journey is far from over. The 75th anniversary of the UDHR coincides with a time of global upheaval and conflict, marked by a resurgence of authoritarianism, growing inequality, and a deepening climate crisis, all of which pose serious existential threats to human rights. Now, more than ever, there is a need for innovative, human-centred approaches to human rights education and advocacy, that harness the power of technology to spread awareness and mobilise support for human rights issues and bring human rights close to home, and to the worlds and lives of those who are their beneficiaries – human beings. Eleanor Roosevelt’s words inspired me so much that I wrote 130,000 words around them for my PhD thesis, Rights by Design: Mainstreaming Human Rights Information, Education and Culture, which explored the numinosity of human rights (that is, the intrinsic relationship between an individual and their rights).
In my thesis, I called for the rehumanisation of human rights by bringing rights home to the communities, families, schools, universities and worlds of work in which human beings engage, interact and live their lives. Without this, human rights run the risk of becoming a construct so abstract and divorced from our lived experiences as human beings that they further fragment, and become vulnerable to attack and opportunistic attempts to regress rights that prove politically or economically inconvenient to state actors. Bringing human rights into our consciousness, in the homes we live in and the families we are a part of, the schools and universities and vocational training college we attend, the places we work, and in the popular culture we consume and create, is the single most inclusive strategy we can deploy to dehumanise human rights, and bring them back to the ‘world of the individual person’.
In this light, we are thrilled to announce the launch of Rights Reimagined, a unique digital platform dedicated to promoting human rights education, communication, and culture, and to championing human rights defenders, educators, communicators and creatives who do such important work in raising awareness of human rights around the world, often under significant threat to their security and wellbeing. Rights Reimagined will serve as a dynamic hub for human rights culture, offering a range of interactive resources, including an online directory of innovations, courses, webinars, and a growing digital library of human rights literature, podcasts and resources. Rights Reimagined will cater to a diverse audience, from students and educators to activists and policymakers, providing tools and information to understand, respect, and promote human rights. It is supported by leading partners who do important human rights work and tirelessly support human rights defenders in their advocacy.
As we mark the 75th anniversary of the UDHR, it’s time to recommit ourselves as human rights defenders, educators, communicators and creatives to the principles it embodies and to explore new ways to champion human rights culture in the 21st century. Rights Reimagined is more than just a resource; it’s a call to action, an invitation to join a global community of creative, innovative human rights defenders and to help mainstream human rights culture, communication and education within our day to day lives.
