December 2020

Human Rights Day
What do you consider to be the most
important words ever written? Are they
in the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, The
Vedas or other holy book? Or are they the
words used in your marriage service, at a
family member’s funeral, or those in your
passport, allowing you to travel to foreign
places under the protection of your home
nation?
Everyone will have their own answer to
that question, but have you considered
how the following words might be
considered as the most important words
for ALL people?
“All human beings are born free and equal
in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should
act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.”
These are the words from Article 1 of
the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, a document written in 1948 which
sets out “the fundamental rights and
freedoms inherent to all human beings
without distinction of race, colour, gender,
language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property,
birth or any other status.”
In other words, it helps define a set of
principles for how human beings should
treat other human beings and is the
basis for human rights law. At the end
of the Second World War, the nations of
the world came together to try to ensure
peace and security across the globe and
with the atrocities of memories of two
world wars behind them, they established
the international organisation of the United
Nations as mechanism for governments
to “find areas of agreement and solve
problems together.” Various committees
and councils were formed, one of which
looked at the issue of human rights and
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
was born out of their collaborations. It was
adopted by the United Nations General
Assembly, made up of representatives
from different Member States around the
globe, on 10th December 1948. And whilst
it is not a legally binding document, it has
inspired more than 60 other human rights
agreements, accords and legislation.
It was drafted by eight men and one
woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, former First
Lady of the USA, who chaired the first
Human Rights Committee and it has been
translated into more than 500 languages,
making it the most translated document in
the world.
Explaining human rights to
children
One of the challenges in explaining
human rights to younger children is how
do you do so without scaring them about
the world they live in? Human history
is unfortunately full of cases of human
rights abuses perpetrated by humans on
other humans and there are still many
instances of inhuman degradation and
abuse occurring every minute of every
day. But we do not need to linger on this in
order to make the point. You can start by
looking at a simple topic, such as where
our food comes from, or how different
people live around the world, or what
education is like in other countries and you
will soon be able to explain that things
are not yet equal for everyone around
the world. Some of these differences are
due to varying culture and are celebrated
(like national foods such as pasta, curry
and croissants). Other differences are
due to inequalities, and that’s where
organisations like the United Nations are
trying to make the world a fairer place for
everyone by highlighting the inequality
and encouraging governments to tackle it.
Human Rights Day 2020
There are now 193 Member States of
the United Nations, and each year they
celebrate December 10th as Human Rights
Day. This year, the theme is “Recover
Better – Stand Up for Human Rights”
which obviously relates to the COVID-19
pandemic. The theme aims to make
human rights central to all recovery efforts
and to tackle “entrenched, systematic and
intergenerational inequalities, exclusions
and discrimination”.
The pandemic has wrecked lives across
the world, not just in exacting a heavy
death toll, but also by affecting the
economies, health systems, people’s
mental health and the way of live of
communities across the world. And as
is often the case, it is the poorest, least
educated, and least represented people
who suffer the most. By using the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as a
standard to work to, we can work together
to build a fairer, more just world.
So in 2020, the UN is focusing on 4 basic
ideas to lead the pandemic recovery
process:
• End discrimination of any kind.
• Address inequalities, especially those
which have been exacerbated by the
pandemic.
• Encourage participation and solidarity
in the recovery process. “We’re all in
this together” after all.
• Promote sustainable development
which links in with the UN’s
Sustainable Development Goals.
Ways to celebrate Human
Rights Day in your setting
1. Create a ‘circle of hands’ wreath
to symbolise unity and connection.
Ask the children to do handprints
on pieces of paper using different
colours. Cut them out and stick them
into a circle to display.
2. Use the hashtags
#Standup4humanrights and
#HumanRightsDay on your social
media messages and posts to raise
awareness.
3. Teach the children about human
rights through story books. The
human rights charity, Amnesty
International has a list of books for
younger children on their website
or you can use others such as “For
every child, a better world” by Kermit
the Frog,”, “Horton hears a Who” by
Dr. Seuss or “My Little Book of Big
Freedoms” by Chris Riddell.
4. Make a blessings tree. Take a dried
tree branch and paint it white. Then
ask the children about things they
value and write these on sticky notes
that you then attach to the tree. You
can use this to start up a conversation
about what is important to them.
5. Invite a leading member of your local
community in to give a talk to explain
what human rights means for them
and how it affects everyday life.
6. Model respect for human rights in
everything you do; from the way
you deal with colleagues to showing
respect, patience and empathy for all.
7. Download some campaign resources
to use here.
As ever, remember to send us your photos
too.
12 December 2020 | parenta.com
parenta.com | December 2020 13