After the Second World War, the tragic treatment, and mass murder of Jews in the concentration camps it became apparent that the fundamental human rights were far from being respected. Leaders came together from all over the world with the goal of finding peace, and in 1945, the United Nations was created. The first global agreement defining basic human rights was put forward at the United Nations in 1948. Representatives from the 50 member states, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, compiled a document where human rights were clearly set out and defined as being "for all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, abilities, class and all religion since every one of us is born free." This document was called the “UDHR, the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION of HUMAN RIGHTS.”
It was agreed that every single human being has the right to the 30 articles of the UDHR. Here we have summarised what are considered the 10 most fundamental human rights:
1. The right to life.
No one including the government, the police, or any other authority has the right to kill you – this includes the death penalty.
2. The right to freedom from torture and inhumane treatment.
We must always have respect for all humanity.
3. The right to equal treatment before the law.
No discrimination should occur in a court of law.
4. The right to privacy.
No one has the right to spy on you unlawfully.
5. The right to asylum.
Everyone should expect protection when running from persecution in their own country.
6 The right to marry and have a family.
No one has the right to force someone to marry.
7.The right to freedom of thought, religion, opinion, and expression.
Rulers, governments, and any other authority cannot persecute you for expressing an opinion they don't agree with.
8 The right to work.
The right to work in humane conditions, with equal pay and union protection.
9 The right to education
An absolute top priority to achieve independence and remove ignorance.
10 The right to Social Services
We must all have the right to adequate clothing, housing, food, water, medical care, and security.
We have all heard of Emmeline Pankhurst, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Violeta Zuniga who all stood up to injustice and fought incessantly for people’s civil rights in the past. They paved the way by taking on political repression and discrimination at an organised level, but who are the human rights defenders and activists of this day and age?
Here is a list of some incredibly brave people who are seriously fighting for human rights.
Nadia Murad won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 “for efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.” At 19 she spent 3 months as a sex slave for Isis after being kidnapped for being from "the wrong religion.” She was taken from her Iraqi Yazidi family by gunpoint and was forced to convert to Islam after an attack on her community in which over 600 Yazidi men were executed. In 2015 she escaped to a refugee camp and managed to get asylum in Germany. Since then, she has become an outspoken activist against sexual violence. She showed great courage in speaking about her experience in human trafficking at the United Nations Security Council. She works to help women and children who are victims of abuse and human trafficking.
Raif bin Muhammad Badawi has been held in captivity in Saudi Arabia for 9 years now. He is a talented author and Saudi activist who set up a website called Free Saudi Liberals which led to his arrest. He was accused of disrespecting Islam by promoting secularism: the right to follow or not follow religion. He was also charged with apostasy: the abandonment of religious or political beliefs. For these “crimes” he was condemned to 1000 lashes. He was to be whipped in public over 20 days and given a prison sentence of 10 years. The punishment was cancelled after the first 50 lashes for medical reasons, but it is widely believed that it was probably because of the huge international outcry. He has since been on hunger strike, and in turn has been force fed. His wife Ensaf Haidar escaped to Canada with their three children, and she is working hard to raise awareness and get Raif released. In 2015 he won the European Union's Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought and the DW Freedom of Speech award.
Malala Yousafzai belongs to a family of activists. After surviving a bullet to the head by the Taliban on the school bus home coming back from her father's all-girls school in 2012, she became famous worldwide and has continued to use her voice to promote education for all. From her new base in the UK, she founded the Malala Fund Organisation with her father with the aim to give all girls a chance to have an education and a future. She has recently completed a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University. She says “Every day I fight to ensure all girls receive 12 years of safe, quality education. I travel to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination in order to go to school. I fight to change this.”
Nancy Herz is a 25-year-old Norwegian/ Lebanese activist who works with Amnesty International after gaining followers when her article entitled “We are the shameless Arab women and our time starts now was published. This article started the #shameless movement which Nancy described as “trying to tackle negative social control and the consequences of growing up in a shame honour culture.” Nancy regurlarly writes about freedom feminism and anti-racism and raises the awareness of these issues globally. In 2016 she won the Freedom of Expression Tribute Award. She has been a human rights activist, writer, and speaker for a few years now and she believes that girls and women need to free themselves from “constrictive gender roles set for them”, but it is an ongoing battle.
Greta Thunberg is most probably the best-known activist on this list. Her fight to stop the climate crisis even caused David Attenborough to comment “You have aroused the world and I am grateful to you.” We first saw her when she decided to skip school in order to begin her “School Strike for the Climate Campaign” outside the Swedish Parliament. She quickly became the inspiration of students worldwide who were tired of politician’s excuses. In December 2018 over 20,000 students were walking out of school. She went viral again in 2019 when she sailed the Atlantic to New York to speak at the UN climate conference. A passionate speech called for the leaders present to do more:
“You all come to us young people for hope! How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” Over the years her dedication has earned her much respect. Times Magazine named her person of the year in 2019 much to Trump's dismay. She campaigns continuously to raise awareness of how global warming is a real and present threat. Greta says she will not stop until she convinces people in power across the world to work with more urgency in tackling harmful emissions.
Alexya Salvador was born in the suburbs of San Paulo in Brazil, a country that is considered extremely unsafe for the LGBTQ+ community. The current President Jair Bolsanaro once said he would rather his son were dead than gay. Alexya is a trans woman and a Pastor. In fact, she was the first trans pastor in Latin America. She is also famous for being the first transgender person to adopt children in Brazil, and campaigns relentlessly for the acceptance of different formations of families. She is currently the vice president of the Brazilian Association of Homotransaffective Families. She campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights, education and adoption in a country that kills the most LGBTQ+ people anywhere in the world. She's also a state school teacher and she believes that prejudice is born due to lack of information. She fights hard for educational reforms that could inform the population. Alexya promotes “dialogue and respect and try to teach people that differences are not a threat. Times are changing, the world is no longer the same. Things happen one day at a time, one month of time.”
Where it is true that a lot of progress has been made regarding human rights, we can safely say that there is still a lot of work to do. We can start by helping to raise awareness regarding these heroes and their battles.
References:
https://m.dw.com/en/raif-badawi/t-18194920 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/murad/facts/
Raif Badawi has been released from prison.