10 December 2008

On Human Rights Day, working for the universality of rights

On the occasion of Human Rights Day, the Center for Inquiry just released this statement on ongoing work to uphold the universality of human rights and the launch of a campaign concerning Shari'a courts in the United Kingdom.

Today we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and above all its affirmation of the freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and expression.

At the United Nations General Assembly meeting in Paris in December 1948 at which the Declaration was adopted, Eleanor Roosevelt told the assembled delegates: “As we bring to fruition our labors on this Declaration of Human Rights, we must at the same time rededicate ourselves to the unfinished task which lies before us.” That task was to make the Declaration “a common standard of achievement” for humanity, and it remains unfinished.

Read more at Center for Inquiry. My bags aren't packed for Holland (I leave tomorrow night), but at least I think I know what I am going to say.

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