The Campaign News
EHHR campaign to be highlighted at UN General Assembly
This last weekend, the Elders gathered a group greater than two hundred strong at La Maison Des Arts et Métiers in Paris to reflect on the last year of Every Human Has Rights. They stood alongside more than 30 award-winning human rights journalists, civil society leaders, and government and business leaders to amplify the voices of millions of people around the world; re-committing themselves to the goals of the Universal Declaration and calling on governments and individuals everywhere to renew their commitment to human rights.
On Wednesday, 10 December - the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Mary Robinson will highlight messages from Paris and the individual pledges and group commitments made throughout the campaign in an address to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Living up to our 'Responsibility to Protect' in Darfur
At the UN World Summit in 2005, world leaders unanimously adopted the principle of the Responsibility to Protect.
“The principle stipulates, first, that states have an obligation to protect their citizens from mass atrocities; second, that the international community should assist them in doing so; and, third, that, if the state in question fails to act appropriately, the responsibility to do so falls to that larger community of states. R2P should be understood as a solemn promise made by leaders of every country to all men and women endangered by mass atrocities.”
-according to the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect
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| With the Save Darfur Coalition report's launch, Crisis Action organized a press conference in New York for the UN press corps, a media stunt outside the UN involving a helicopter and national work in all major target countries. |
But on the one-year anniversary of the UN resolution agreeing to make good on that obligation in the Darfur region of Sudan, authorizing a joint UN – African Union (UNAMID) force to support peacekeeping efforts, a report endorsed by 36 Human Rights groups calls the international community’s lack of contributions to the effort a “betrayal”.
The report, by the Save Darfur Coalition, says helicopters are vital to the success of the peacekeeping mission, yet no country has offered a single helicopter.
Four members of The Elders who traveled to Sudan last year – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lakhdar Brahimi, President Jimmy Carter and Graça Machel – contributed the foreword, stating:
“This report sets out for the first time which states have the necessary helicopters and estimates how many are available for deployment to Darfur. It identifies a number of countries -- including the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Romania, Spain and Ukraine -- that have large numbers of helicopters that meet the required specifications and are not on mission or mission rotation elsewhere. Many of these helicopters are gathering dust in hangars or flying in air shows when they could be saving lives in Darfur.”
It also says that peacekeepers are short of even basic equipment, with some soldiers wearing blue plastic bags on their heads because they do not have the standard blue UN helmet.
Groups like the Save Darfur Coalition are joining with human rights organizations and people around the world to pressure states to live up to the Responsibility to Protect.
Do your part. Pledge to stand up for Human Rights and take action. You can learn more about Save Darfur Coalition’s work and read their report "Grounded: the International Community's Betrayal of UNAMID" at globefordarfur.org. Learn more about Amnesty International’s work in Sudan here.
Q&A: Righting Human Wrongs
Q&A: Righting Human Wrongs
Interview with Mary Robinson, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
GLASGOW, Jun 22 (IPS) - Mary Robinson spoke to Nastasya Tay of TerraViva/IPS about human rights today and the new campaign Every Human Has Rights, on the sidelines of the eighth CIVICUS World Assembly (Jun. 18-21).
One of the world’s most successful politicians, Mary Robinson -- the first female President of Ireland -- describes the campaign as a "synergy of energy", a way for civil society to act together to effect genuine change under one banner. Human rights issues are an agenda for all of those who are marginalised and imprisoned, she says, but it is also an agenda of responsibility for every individual.
IPS: Sixty years on, how relevant is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights today? How far have we come, and how far do we have to go?Mary Robinson: There is a lot more progress to be made. But the Universal Declaration is very relevant, because it is truly universal and is not a "Western document", if you read it carefully. And sixty years on, the world is in a somewhat similar place to 1948. After two World Wars, after a Holocaust, after the dropping of bombs on Japan, the opening of a Cold War, people were fearful then. People are also fearful now and we are using the wrong approach to make them feel secure. We are using 42-day detention, Guantanamo Bay, torture, and not observing the Geneva Conventions. We need to have people say, "These human rights belong to us". We want governments, or major corporations, or anyone with power, to respect them. We know of our entitlement and we are stronger because those rights are there for us -- the rights of the poor, rights of the marginalised, rights of women, rights of children.
IPS: You say we are in a similar place to where we were in 1948. How will new challenges, such as climate change and the food crisis affect conceptions of human rights?
MR: Next month, the campaigns of the Elders on Every Human Has Rights will focus on freedom from hunger. But we will also have a completely different debate on the right to food. The food crisis, the bio fuel issue, the role of those who are buying futures in food -- it is a very complex debate. Food prices that deprive children of enough to eat become a big justice and rights issue...Climate change itself is an increasingly important justice issue, and approaches to climate change are dependent on how you define it. If you approach it as an environmentally technical issue, you will build sea walls and develop seeds that don’t need water. On the other hand, if you view it as affecting people now, of having an unjust effect on some people because of the activity of other people in other parts of the world -- in Europe and the United States and the parts of Asia that are rapidly developing it is impacting upon the poorest villages, destroying island habitats -- then it’s a big issue of justice, which is relevant to how we approach adaptation. I believe that we need adaptation to help poor communities to cope, to provide insurance for them and their livelihoods.
IPS: And do you think we’re doing enough to tackle those kinds of challenges? How can we do more?
MR: I think we need to do a lot more. I’m glad that now there is a discussion about it -- in fact, next week, I’ll be discussing the humanitarian dimensions of climate change in the Global Humanitarian Forum with Kofi Annan in Geneva. We may be looking at between 100 and 200 million climate refugees in 40 years time, and we have to be really aware of the reality of the situation. On a deeper level, we need to change how people think about human rights. We need to broaden that thinking, so that everybody who feels marginalised, excluded or fearful feels that they have human rights on their side. We haven’t quite gotten there yet. The Every Human Has Rights campaign is a people-power way of re-centring. I will be going to the World Social Forum in the Amazon in January, and I want everyone there to understand that they are all part of a campaign to re-centre human rights as the banner under which we tackle all the inequalities that we deal with.
Rally at CIVICUS World Assembly in the media
Hundreds take part in human rights march in Glasgow
Human rights march clips
Several hundred people have marched through Glasgow as part of a demonstration about human rights. Organisers are hoping the event will highlight opposition to the government's decision to allow terror suspects to be held for 42 days without charges being brought.
The BBC also featured the march:
March puts human rights in focus
Hundreds of people are taking part in a human rights march and rally in Glasgow.
The event celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
There are also protesting against the UK Government's recent decision to extend detention without charge for suspected terrorists to 42 days.
The event brings to a close the World assembly of Civicus, which has been held at Glasgow's SECC.
During the past week Civicus, the global alliance for citizen participation, has brought together more than 1,000 activists from 150 countries.
They have been in Glasgow to debate issues such as climate change, trade and pre-charge detention.
Kumi Naidoo, the outgoing secretary general of Civicus, said: "We want the people of Scotland to stand with us as we raise our concerns about vital human rights issues - such as draconian anti-terror laws, and growing poverty.
Will you be at the CIVICUS World Assembly Saturday?
The 8th CIVICUS World Assembly will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 18th to 21st June 2008. The theme for the World Assembly is ‘Acting Together for a Just World: People, Participation and Power’. The finale event is a rally called 'Every Human Has Rights: Stand Up Against Poverty and Injustice'.
Human Rights remain a dream for many in the world, the rights to affordable food, safe shelter, liveable wages, amongst many others-and even the right to speak out against policies which deny these basic needs- are under threat.
This year we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In commemoration of this, there will be a rally to support efforts to end global poverty and defend the freedoms to speak out against injustice.
We invite you to join the World Assembly delegates, Glasgow public and civil society in rally as they march from the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) to Kelvingrove Park at 10:30 am on Saturday, 21 June 2008.
To further honour the anniversary, there will be tuneful entertainment and information displays by local Non Governmental Organisation, along with presentations from World Assembly speakers:
- Ela Bhatt; Founder and Chair of Self-Employed Women’s Association
- Mary Robinson; Director of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative (Former Prime Minister of Ireland and UN Human Rights Commissioner)
- Salil Shetty; Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign
- Alan Miller; Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission
- Netsanet Demissie Daniel Bekele; Ethiopian Anti-Poverty Campaigners
- Kumi Naidoo; Secretary General, CIVICUS (Moderator)
For more information, download the Every Human has Rights Rally flyer here
Attending the Every Human Has Rights rally in Glasgow? Tell us about it by sending an email to everyhumanhasrights@theelders.org
