I met Omar and Fatima (not their real names) in a refugee camp in Greece. They were refugees from Aleppo, Syria, and shared their story with me. Omar was an architect, his wife a cosmetologist. They lived a comfortable, middle-class life, with their own car and an apartment they shared with their two children.
As the Syrian civil war moved closer and closer, they held out hope that they would be able to stay in Aleppo, but they left, they said, when the bombs were keeping their two babies awake all night. Within days of their departure, their apartment was destroyed.
By the time I met them in Greece, they had been out of Syria for 14 months. They had a third child. They had shelter from harsh weather conditions. And Omar was desperately unhappy. He was not allowed to work in Greece and he felt worthless. He described his depression becoming so intense that he couldn’t get out of bed. His hair started falling out. He helped our team distribute shoes and could not stop thanking us for giving him an opportunity to do something.
Refugees are people too. They want to keep their families safe and warm and fed. They want the dignity of work. They want to be seen, heard and believed. They want a better life for their children. They want the same basic human rights we all want.
Dec. 10 is International Human Rights Day, commemorating the day in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed as a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly in 1946 and served as the first chair of the Commission on Human Rights. She was instrumental in drafting the declaration and used her prestige and credibility to see the process through to completion.
The original declaration coming on the heels of World War II and during a time of increasing East-West tensions, begins:
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
“Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people ….”
The General Assembly then went on to proclaim the 30 articles of basic human rights as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.” Those 30 rights are going to sound familiar to U.S. residents who have at least a passing knowledge of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The first one is that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, endowed with reason and a conscience. Additional rights include the right to “life, liberty and security of person,” all are equal before the law and have a right to be presumed innocent, the right to freely move within their own country and the right to leave and then return. Everyone has the right to a nationality, to freely choose who they will marry and have equal rights in dissolving a marriage. Article 16 says “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State,” while Article 23 says “Everyone has the right to work, the right to “just and favourable remuneration” that allows an existence “worthy of human dignity.”
Clearly, the document is aspirational, as are our founding documents. Even as I wrote this, stories of violations of basic human rights played through my mind — and these violations occur in the United States as well as other parts of the world.
Roosevelt recognized that as well. “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin,” she asked? “In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he 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 concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
Next year, Dec. 10, 2023, will mark the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I will continue to look for ways large and small that I can support, uphold and defend basic human rights. Will you join me?
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy.