The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In 1947 the Human Rights Commission, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, drafted the UDHR. Representatives from a range of countries were involved in agreeing the wording and the Declaration was adopted by the United Nations on 10th December 1948.
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.
Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college she attends; the factory, farm or office where he works.
Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.
Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)