Angeles University Foundation

Angeles City
Center for Christian Formation
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
ADVOCACY PAPER

Theme: Being free and being equal in dignity and

rights
Discrimination lies at the root of many of the worlds
most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge.
Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the
highest order.
- Navi Pillay
United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights

Human Rights Day 2009 on December 10 will focus on nondiscrimination. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity
and rights. These first few famous words of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights established 60 years ago are the basic premise of
international human rights law. Yet today, the fight against
discrimination remains a daily struggle for millions around the globe.
Our main objective is to help in promoting discrimination-free
societies and a world of equal treatment for all, says the High
Commissioner, Navi Pillay, who will mark Human Rights Day in South
Africa this year.
Navi Pillay encourages people everywhere - including the UN family,
governments, civil societies, national human rights institutions, the
media, educators, and individuals - to seize the opportunity of Human
Rights Day 2009 to join hands in embracing diversity and ending
discrimination.
The realization of all human rights - social, economic and cultural
rights as well as civil and political rights is hampered by
discrimination. All too often, when faced with prejudice and
discrimination, political leaders, governments and ordinary citizens
are silent or complacent.
Yet everyone of us can make a difference. You are encouraged to
celebrate Human Rights Day by advocating non-discrimination,
organizing activities, raising awareness and reaching out to your local
communities on December 10 and throughout 2010.

Join hands to end discrimination.

All human rights work can be viewed through the non-discrimination
lens. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
disability, property, birth or other status.
Why should we focus on human rights?
Human rights are about accountability. Human rights focus on
holding governments, and other actors, accountable for their actions.
The human rights framework also focuses on empowerment giving
voice and power to those who are poor and otherwise unable to claim
their rights.
What do we mean by poverty?
Poverty has traditionally been defined in terms of low income.
However, poor people generally see poverty through its different
manifestations of deprivation - hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, unsafe
drinking water, lack of access to basic health services, social
discrimination, physical insecurity and political exclusion. They are
also acutely aware of their lack of voice and power that leaves them
open to exploitation and humiliation. The Indian economist, Amartya
Sen, has pushed for an understanding of poverty that moves away
from an income-based measure towards a broader conception of
human development. This sees poverty as the denial of capabilities
and freedoms to achieve what each individual is capable of.
Poverty is an assault on human dignity, but it can also reflect a
violation of human rights when it is the direct consequence of
government policy or is caused by the failure of governments to act. A
human rights approach to poverty calls for a paradigm shift in how we
understand and address poverty. Extreme poverty to me is the
greatest denial of the exercise of human rights. You don't vote, you
don't participate in any political activity, your views aren't listened to,
you have no food, you have no shelter, your children are dying of
preventable diseases - you don't even have the right to clean water.
It's a denial of the dignity and worth of each individual which is what
the Universal Declaration proclaims. (Mary Robinson, 2002)
Around the world, more than 443 million people live in the peril
of chronic poverty, barely able to secure their familys survival. The
number of people suffering from poverty has increased by 40% over
just the last five years.
Every day 50,000 children, women and men die silently from
easily preventable diseases associated with poverty - starvation,
diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, measles and death in

childbirth. The lives of people living in extreme poverty are

continuously threatened by lack of food, the risk of disease,
hazardous work and precarious living conditions. They experience
violence of all types, including discrimination, attacks, harassment,
humiliation and sometimes even threats of death, often just because
they are poor. Yet, poverty is not always treated as a human rights
issue. In fact, it is often seen as tragic but inevitable, especially in the
poorer developing countries. The blame for poverty is frequently laid
at the door of those who suffer from it, as they are portrayed at best
as unfortunate, or at worst as lazy, undeserving or even criminal.
There is little effort to look beyond this narrative to examine why
poverty persists in a world that is richer than ever before. It has been
forcefully argued that, When someone is tortured or when a person's
right to speak freely is restricted, observers almost unconsciously
hold the State responsible. However, when people die of hunger or
thirst, or when thousands of urban poor and rural dwellers are evicted
from their homes, the world still tends to blame nameless economic
or developmental forces or the simple inevitability of human
deprivation, before liability is placed at the doorstep of the State.
Worse yet, victims of such violations are increasingly blamed
themselves for creating their own dismal fates, and in some countries
even characterized as criminals on this basis alone. (Scott Leckie,
1998)
Poverty is a cause and consequence of human rights violations,
and is in itself a violation of Human Rights. This suggests that
violations of human rights can be cause, consequence or constitutive
element of poverty:
1. Cause: This suggests that poverty causes human rights
violations those living in extreme poverty are not treated as human
beings worthy of human rights, and are discriminated against, often
exploited, marginalized and stigmatized, and denied access to rights
and resources on the basis of their poverty.
2. Consequence: This suggests that poverty is a consequence
of human rights violations or in other words, that human rights
violations cause poverty. Violations of human rights e.g. forced
eviction from homes or land, or the destruction or denial of access to
productive resources can clearly cause poverty.
3. Constitutive: This argument suggests that poverty, especially
extreme poverty, is in itself a negation of human dignity and therefore
a denial of human rights. Under this view, it is unacceptable to let any
human being live in conditions of degrading deprivation, as neither
their physical well-being nor their human dignity is protected.
3 Levels of Human Rights Obligations:
1. Respect: This means refraining from harming the enjoyment of
human rights.
2. Protect: This means ensuring that third parties (non-state actors)

do not infringe the enjoyment of human rights.

3. Fulfill: This means taking positive steps to progressively realize
human rights.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF

HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all
nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this
Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote
respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national
and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and
observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among
the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

ARTICLE 1... 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.
ARTICLE 2... Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person
belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other
limitation of sovereignty.
ARTICLE 3... Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
ARTICLE 4... No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave
trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
ARTICLE 5... No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.
ARTICLE 6... Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person
before the law.
ARTICLE 7... All are equal before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection
against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any
incitement to such discrimination.
ARTICLE 8... Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent
national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the
constitution or by law.
ARTICLE 9... No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
ARTICLE 10... Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by
an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and
obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

ARTICLE 11... (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be
presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which
he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or
omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international
law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed
than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
ARTICLE 12... No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his
privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and
reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such
interference or attacks.
ARTICLE 13... (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave
any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
ARTICLE 14... (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries
asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising
from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of
the United Nations.
ARTICLE 15... (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to
change his nationality.
ARTICLE 16... (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race,
nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are
entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the
intending spouses. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of
society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
ARTICLE 17... (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in
association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
ARTICLE 18... Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom,
either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
ARTICLE 19... Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
ARTICLE 20... (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
ARTICLE 21... (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his
country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this
will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by

universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent
free voting procedures.
ARTICLE 22... Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security
and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation
and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the
economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality.
ARTICLE 23... (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment,
to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal
work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and
supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of
his interests.
ARTICLE 24... Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable
limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
ARTICLE 25... (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the
health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security
in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other
lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All
children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
protection.
ARTICLE 26... (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free,
at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall
be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally
available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of
merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality
and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial
or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the
maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given
to their children.
ARTICLE 27... (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of
the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its
benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests
resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the
author.
ARTICLE 28... Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which
the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
ARTICLE 29... (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free
and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to
such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due
recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the
just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a
democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the
purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 30... Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any
State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act
aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

CCF Advocacy:
A human rights approach to poverty calls for a paradigm shift in how we
see and address poverty. It suggests that poverty is not simply inevitable, nor can
it only be blamed on the poor. It seeks to identify where poverty is created by
human actions or policy choices, rather than by nameless economic forces. A
human rights approach views poverty not as a question of fate, but rather as
issue of justice. It demands that we reject the view that poverty is inevitable, but
rather look at why poverty persists. With a human rights approach, we must
investigate, and demand accountability for, the actions (or failures to act) that
produce, perpetuate and worsen poverty.
A human rights approach to poverty demands a shift in our consciousness
and understanding:
1. Away from a vision based on charity to one based on obligations and
responsibilities
2. Away from viewing people as objects of development to viewing people
as subjects of human rights
3. Away from seeing poverty as an inevitable tragedy to seeing it as an
intolerable injustice.
We cannot call poverty-related deprivations a violation if a government has the
political will to take action but does not have the economic resources or physical
capacity to take such action. We can therefore argue that, while poverty and its
different manifestations (hunger, illiteracy etc) always reflect the non-enjoyment
of human rights and an affront to human dignity, they often but not always, reflect
a violation of human rights. From this perspective the violation consists, not in
poverty itself, but in the failures of governments to prevent poverty (when this
would have been possible), or in the concrete actions taken that produce or
perpetuate poverty. As Braveman and Gruskin (2003) say,
Poverty is not, in itself, a violation of human rights. However,
government action or inaction leading to poverty, or government failure
to respond adequately to the conditions that create, exacerbate and
perpetuate poverty and marginalization often reflect or are closely
connected with violations or denials of human rights.
Things Anyone Can Do for Human Rights

1. Give someone the booklet, What Are Human Rights? Ask them to read it.
Download it at http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/introduction/udhr_full.html
2. Teach someone about their 30 human rights as contained in the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
3. Volunteer some time to support your local library, reading center or school
newspaper and help bring greater knowledge to others.
4. Find and read a storybook about a humanitarian to a younger person. Talk
about the human rights violation in the story and how it was solved.
5. Take care of your environment so that you and others can enjoy good health,
and leisure time out of doors. For example, plant a tree or pick up trash.
6. Give your help at a food bank or homeless shelter. You could, for instance,
start a food drive for the needy at school or in your neighborhood.
7. Start a Youth for Human Rights Club to teach human rights to others and do
human rights projects with friends.
8. If you see someone being teased about what he is saying, speak up in
defense of his right to share his opinions.
9. When someone else has something you would like to use, ask if they are
willing to share it, and offer them something that you are willing to share in return.
If they do not want to share, respect their right to own and control their own
things.
10. Create a drawing, skit, song, video, poem or essay, about one of the 30
human rights or the subject of human rights in general, and share it with others.
11. Speak up if someone says damaging things to make another person look
bad. Ask him to communicate directly to the person involved, so that any
misunderstandings, untruths or valid complaints can be remedied.
12. Know your rights by heart and dont let anyone take them away. Tell others
about their human rights. Talk about human rights with your friends. Show them
some websites with information about human rights.
13. If you are old enough to vote, be sure to do so. Encourage others to vote and
to take part in public affairs.
14. Write letters to the leaders of your city and country stating that you would like
to see the Universal Declaration of Human Rights go into full use. Ask what they
intend to do to make this happen, and how you and your friends can help.
15. Support human rights organizations or groups that work to safeguard one or
more of the 30 human rights.
16. Do as many of the above as you can and encourage your friends and family
to do the same.

E-References:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/HumanRightsDay2009.aspx
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/getactive/thingsanyonecando.html
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/introduction/udhr_full.html

Prepared by:
Mrs. Anna Marie M. Olalia
CCF Faculty