Human rights

[Neil D]

Shameless cut and paste of my daughter's blog-

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In an era of fear and patriotism some believe that human rights are merely a myth. Some believe that human rights can not go hand in hand with national security or defence against terrorism.

Others reply that without human rights upheld on every level, national security is already lost and terrorism has already won. But touting key words and phrases should not turn your support to whatever cause i'm pushing.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights was set out in order to keep the world from having to suffer through another World War but if war did happen, there would not be horrors like Auschwitz. As time passed, goals were set to help make the world a better place. Sadly these goals which were intended to be met by 2015, are not likely to be met at all. With the exception of Europe and North America, no one will even reach these goals by 2020.

Human rights are not something to be ignored. These rights protect your right to an education. They protect women's rights to medical help and encourage equal pay for equal work. These rights keep governments from kidnapping citizens and torturing civilians. Sadly, these rights are not being recognised around the world.

At last count in 2006,

- torture was used by governing authorities in 102 countries.

- 91% of all known executions took place in 6 countries: China, Iran, Iraq,

Sudan, Pakistan and the US

-At least 1 in 3 of the world’s women had been beaten, coerced into sex or

otherwise abused

-85% of killings worldwide involved the use of small arms and light weapons

-60% of the world’s firearms were in the hands of private individuals

I wish i could call people to actions with these words, but i can not. These statistics are here to make you wonder and think. The links are there for further research. What you do, if you do, is up to you.

[aldona]

Neil, congratulate your daughter on a great blog and tell her to keep up the good work.

Is she a member of Amnesty?

(If not, she can come and join my branch! It's a long way to travel to Melbourne for meetings, but the trip is very scenic and we always have lots of fair-trade chocolate and organic goodies to eat!)

aldona