10/12/2022
Whose rights are we celebrating?
Human rights have said to become more recognized around the world since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. To commemorate its 75th anniversary on December 10, 2023, the UN Human Rights will launch a year-long campaign starting on 10th of December, Human Rights Day, showcasing the legacy and relevance of the UDHR using the theme, “Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All.”
The UDHR is, unarguably, a progress of humanity with a unifying core of protecting and preserving the rights of every person; be it in any social, cultural, political division, across the world. As a global footprint of international laws and policies, the adoption of the UDHR promotes the universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated rights of every human being, or so we thought.
The central promise to humanity enshrined in the UDHR was neither under attack nor has it ceased in the present times. It was still the same declaration, aimed at making the world a better place to live in. However, as part of commemorating the UDHR’s 74th anniversary this year, it is pertinent to ask the progress humanity have made so far–as to what the heart of the declaration constitutes.
Have we unrestrained ourselves from the shackles of systematic oppression, perpetrated by the people in power to account for the protection and security of all? Did we render an adequate respect and honor to every human being in the world, as it holds the fabric of human and societal dignity? Have we made this world a safer place to live in? Have we freed ourselves from the strangles of our very human tendencies for power, greed, and honor? Do we live a better life now?
Until we overcome our natural human tendencies, i.e. our strength to escape from our natural human inclinations; until we answer these questions by the experience we have in the world; and we can put smiles to the eyes of every child. It is only upon then that we can celebrate the rights every human being ought to intrinsically have, in the first place.
Hence, part of our role as a rational, morally and ethically upright, and philosophy-driven individual is to ensure that every day is a human rights day, so as to make sure that we no longer just celebrate the 10th of December where the UDHR has been adopted, but guarantee that in every minute of every day, we feel that human rights are upheld and championed.
Otherwise, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed 74 years ago will remain as dust held by an empty ink inscribed into paper, never achieved by every human being. After all, whose rights are we celebrating?
Article by: Jhon Lloyd Pioquinto
