International Human Rights Day December 10, 2014

International International Human Rights Human Rights

DayDay

December 10, 2014

OverviewOverviewThe HHSC Civil Rights Office provides this presentation to celebrate

International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2014. This presentation covers the following topics:

History of the United Nations What are Human Rights? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) The Rights Listed in the UDHR Human Rights Committees The United Nations Today History of the International Human Rights Day Human Rights Day 2014 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights Americans Awarded the Prize in the Field of Human Rights

History of the United History of the United NationsNations

The United Nations (UN) officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, at the end of World War II. The purposes of the United Nations are to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly

relations among nations; to cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems; to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and to be a

center for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining these ends.

There are 193 members of the UN, and each country, large or small, rich or poor, has a single vote. The headquarters is in New York City,

but the land and the building housing the UN are considered international territory. There are six official languages used at the UN:

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

What Are Human What Are Human Rights?Rights?

A human right is something to which all people are entitled, such as the right to vote, the right to an education or the right to express views freely. The UN states that human rights are “those rights which are inherent in our nature and without which we cannot live as human

beings.” Things that many of us take for granted – such as the right to an education, the right to receive medical care, and the freedom to practice our religion – are not equally available to all those living in

America and to many living in other parts of the world. Human rights are recognized as fundamental by the UN and feature prominently in

the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations.

Universal Declaration of Universal Declaration of Human Rights?Human Rights?

During World War II (1939-1945), millions of soldiers and civilians were killed as a result of

military combat, occupation, and concentration camps. After the end of the war, the UN was

created with a dream of securing peace and justice in the world by international co-operation. The

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was created, passed and adopted by those nations who were part of the UN in 1948. The UDHR is a set of universally accepted and observed basic human rights, so that people would never again have to

go through the abuses that they had suffered during World War II. This was the first time an

international document was created and agreed to by the nations of the world. Eleanor Roosevelt

(shown here in photo) chaired the committee that drafted and approved the UDHR.

Universal Declaration of Universal Declaration of Human Rights?Human Rights?

Since the UDHR was signed in 1948, it has been translated into 439 national and local languages

and is the best known and most cited human rights document in the world.

2014 is the 66th anniversary of the United Declaration of Human Rights.

The first words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – All human beings are born free

and equal in dignity and rights – established the basic premise of international human rights law. Yet today, the fight against discrimination remains a daily struggle for millions around the

globe.

Rights Listed in UDHRRights Listed in UDHRHuman rights listed in the UDHR can be divided into two categories:

•Civil and Political Rights•Social, Economic and Cultural Rights

The human rights originally listed in 1948 have been clarified and expanded in the last 66 years. The list of rights now includes protections for children in armed conflicts; compensation for victims; rights of persons with disabilities; protections against discrimination, including discrimination based on HIV or AIDS; enforced or involuntary disappearances; protections for the

environment, indigenous peoples and migrant workers; peacekeeping operations; prosecution for the sale of children,

terrorism and war crimes; and many more.

Civil and Political RightsCivil and Political RightsBasic civil and political rights for individuals in the UDHR include:

Right to Life and Liberty Right to Freedom of MovementRight to Equality Before the Law

Freedom of Opinion and ExpressionFreedom of Assembly and Association

Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and ReligionRight to be Recognized as a Person Before the Law

Right to Presumption of Innocence Until Proven Guilty Right to Appeal a Conviction

Freedom of Choice in Whom a Person MarriesFreedom from Discrimination

Social, Economic & Cultural Social, Economic & Cultural RightsRights

Basic economic, social and cultural rights for individuals in the UDHR include:

Right to Self-Determination

Right to Equal Opportunity for Advancement

Right to Equal Pay for Equal Work

Right to Wages Sufficient to Support a Minimum Standard of Living

Right to Paid/Compensated for Maternity Leave

Right to Form Unions and to Strike

Right to Free Primary Education

Right to Accessible Education at All Levels

Freedom From Exploitation of Children

Human Rights Human Rights CommitteesCommittees

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

This committee is the body of independent experts that monitors

the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights. The committee was established in May 1985 to carry out the monitoring of

economic, social, and cultural rights. The committee helps protect the full range of human rights required for

people to have a full, free, safe, secure and healthy life.


Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

This committee, created in 1965, is the body of independent experts that

monitors racial equality and non-discrimination and the

implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination. The fundamental injustice of racial discrimination, no less than the dangers it represents, has made its elimination a target of

action by the United Nations.


Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Created in 1979 with the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women, this committee is the first comprehensive, legally binding

international instrument prohibiting and obligating governments to take affirmative action

to advance gender equality. The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between

women and men through ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in,

political and public life – including the right to vote and to stand for election – as well as

education, health and employment.


Committee Against Torture and Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture

Created in 1984 with the adoption of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,

Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which laid out the steps to be

taken by governments to prevent torture and other cruel or degrading treatment or

punishment. The committee is the body of independent experts that monitor the

prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.


Committee on Rights of the Child

This committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of The Convention on the Rights of the Child,

which was adopted in 1989 because of reports of grave injustices suffered by

children: high infant mortality, deficient health care and limited opportunities for

basic education. There were also alarming accounts of children being abused and

exploited as prostitutes or in harmful jobs, of children in prison, and of children as refugees and victims of armed conflict.


Committee on Migrant Workers

This committee monitors the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and

members of their families. The committee is the body of independent experts that

also monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Protection

of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. It held its first session in March 2004. The Convention

emphasizes the link between migrant rights and human rights – a topic that is

drawing increasing attention worldwide.


Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Persons with disabilities remain amongst the most marginalized in every society. While the international human rights framework has changed lives everywhere, persons with disabilities have not reaped

the same benefits. This committee is the response of the international community to the long history of discrimination, exclusion and dehumanization of persons with disabilities. The

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted in December 2006. It works to ensure that the world’s largest minority enjoys the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. It covers

the many areas where persons with disabilities have been discriminated against, including access to justice; participation in

political and public life; education; employment; freedom of movement; and freedom from torture, exploitation and violence.


Committee on Enforced Disappearance

This committee and the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances met for the first time in 2011. The Committee is responsible

for overseeing the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearances, a landmark new

human rights treaty designed to deter the practice of enforced disappearance, punish its practitioners and protect its victims. States that have ratified the

Convention shall hold criminally responsible “any person who commits, orders, solicits or induces the commission of, attempts to commit, is an

accomplice to or participates in an enforced disappearance.” The Convention states that “the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance

constitutes a crime against humanity.” Crimes against humanity are one of the most serious of international crimes, and along with war crimes, are not

subject to a statute of limitations.

The United Nations The United Nations Today Today

Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, the eighth Secretary-General of the United

Nations, brings to his post over 40 years of service both in government and on the

global stage.

“It is time to explain that different religions, belief systems and cultural backgrounds are

essential to the richness of the human experience, and it is time to stress that our

common humanity is greater – far greater – than our outward differences.”

Ban Ki-moon

UN Human Rights UN Human Rights CouncilCouncil

Becoming UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2014, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is the seventh individual to lead the Office of the High

Commissioner for Human Rights and the first Asian, Muslim and Arab to do so. A veteran multilateral diplomat, he was previously Jordan’s permanent

representative to the UN, President of the UN Security Council and chaired the Security Council’s committees with regard to two sanctions regimes

regarding the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia. His professional experience demonstrates

his long familiarity with international criminal justice, international law, UN peacekeeping, post-conflict peace-building, international development

and counter-nuclear terrorism.

History of the History of the International Human International Human

Rights Day Rights Day

On December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly, and in 1950, the UN

General Assembly invited “all States and interested organizations to adopt the 10th of December each year as Human Rights Day.” Since then, International Human Rights Day has been observed around the world by various entities of the UN governments, non-governmental organizations, schools and universities, and by others interested in

promoting human rights.

International Human Rights Day is more than just a day to celebrate human rights! It’s a day to recognize what human rights are, how

important they are to us, how they make our lives better, and to think about others who do not share those rights.

Human Rights Day Human Rights Day 20142014

Human Rights Day presents an opportunity, every year, to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by

everyone everywhere.

2014 is the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the mandate of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Human Rights Day continues the celebration of the anniversary with an emphasis on the future and identifying

the challenges that lie ahead.

UN Prize in the Field of UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights Human Rights

The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights is an award given to individuals and organizations in recognition of their outstanding contribution in the promotion and protection of

human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The prize is awarded every five years and the last prizes were awarded in 2013. Since the first UN Prize in the Field of Human

Rights was awarded in 1968, six Americans have received the prize. The next slides profile these individuals.

In 1968 Eleanor Roosevelt was awarded the prize. She was an American politician, diplomat and human rights activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, holding

the post from 1933 to 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office. President Harry S. Truman later called

her the First Lady of the World in tribute to her human rights achievements. She was active in the formation of numerous institutions—most notably the UN, UN Association and Freedom

House. She chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights.

Americans Awarded the Americans Awarded the Prize in the Field of Prize in the Field of

Human Rights Human Rights

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the prize posthumously in 1978. He was a Baptist

minister and African American civil rights activist. He is one of the most significant leaders in U.S. history and in the modern

history of nonviolence. He is considered a hero, peace-maker and martyr by many people

around the world. He organized and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, and other basic civil rights. In 1964, Dr. King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel

Peace Prize, for leading nonviolent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.

He was killed in 1968.



James Grant was awarded the prize in 1993. An American statesman and children's advocate, he

served as the Executive Director of the UN International Children‘s Emergency Fund

(UNICEF) from 1980 to 1995. He led UNICEF in a major campaign to combat the deaths of millions

of children each year from easily preventable illnesses. Launched in 1983, he helped mobilize

international, national and local initiatives to bring life-saving, cost-effective techniques to children in

developing countries. By the end of the 1980s, this revolution was estimated to have saved 12 million young lives. James Grant is shown here

reading to a child at a community center in Cote d’Ivoire, a country in West Africa.



President Jimmy Carter was awarded the prize in 1998. President of the United States from 1977

to 1981, he received the Prize in the Field of Human Rights because of his contributions to bringing a peaceful solution to the civil war in Liberia. He has been involved in a variety of

public policy, human rights, and charitable causes. His work in international public policy and

conflict resolution is largely through the Carter Center. In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of untiring effort to find

peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.



Shulamith Koenig was awarded the prize in 2003. She is the Executive Director of the People’s

Movement for Human Rights (PDHRE), which she founded in 1988 with the goal of creating a global

human rights culture. In 2007 and 2008, she initiated two UN General Assembly resolutions that

affirm an International Year of Human Rights Learning. In early 1990s, she embarked on a

worldwide advocacy and implementation campaign, which resulted in the launching of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education. For more than 20

years, she worked as an industrial engineer, and she and her husband Jerry manufactured water saving

products for irrigation and water systems.



William Ramsey Clark was awarded the prize in 2008. He worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and was

the 66th U.S. Attorney General. He played an important role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1968. He is known for his advocacy for civil and human rights causes and for his role as a

defense attorney for controversial figures like Saddam Hussein. The International Action Center, founded by

Clark in 1992, is known internationally for its major role in the anti-war movement and its actions in the

forefront of extending solidarity to countries and peoples facing U.S. attack and threats. After accepting

the prize, he emphasized the UN's role in ensuring world peace, reminding journalists that the “greatest

threat to human rights is war.”



Conclusion Conclusion

2014 is the 66th anniversary of the United Declaration of Human Rights, and the Civil Rights Office is proud to provide this presentation to

celebrate Human Rights Day on December 10, 2014. Please take time this month to promote the rights and dignity of all people and to

continue to build a world where all have human rights.

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Documents

International Human Rights Day December 10, 2014