International Human Rights Day
Why is Human Rights Day Important?
- People deserve to be treated fairly, with dignity and respect. We are all born equal and should be treated as such. Every person deserves a set of rights by which they can live their life as they choose, and without being oppressed, suppressed or owned by someone else.
- It reminds us how far we have come.
Whilst there is still definitely a long way to go, we should take a moment to acknowledge that progress is being made, and the world is a better and fairer place for more people than it was a few hundred years ago. Let’s acknowledge that and pursue vigorously the improvements that still need to be made.
- It promotes unity. The Declaration of Human Rights was agreed upon by 48 member states when it was first created. That’s 48 countries sharing a common belief that life should be and can be better for everyone.
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2020:
Ida B. Wells-Barnett Award for Courage and Tenacity
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Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an African American woman journalist and activist who courageously led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. She was a reformer and ardent advocate of African-Americans’ civil and human rights, women’s rights, and economic rights. She maintained a fearless devotion to justice in her fight against racism, which often placed her in physical danger or social isolation. As a journalist and an activist, Ida B. Wells-Barnett made an indelible mark on the history of the United States and offered a critique of racial, sexual, and economic exploitation that still rings true today. In that same spirit of activism, professionalism, courage and tenacity, Nikole Hannah-Jones , the 2020 recipient, continues to courageously and fearlessly engage everyone -- scholars, public officials, educators, key stakeholders and the general public alike -- on the history of oppression and suppression of Black voices, minds, souls and bodies here in the United States, which have current implications for present-day racial disparities and inequities in many sectors of our local, state and national communities.
Congratulations!.... and Thank you for “standing up for” and advancing Human Rights across our nation.