Today is Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is commemorated each year on 10 December, the date on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted.  The UDHR is truly universal: It is the world's most translated document (currently, 380+ languages) and has been awarded a Guinness World Record accordingly.  This year's theme is "My Voice Counts."

Human Rights Day presents an opportunity to highlight continuing violations of many of the rights enumerated in the UDHR.  In the forced migration context, examples include

• immigration detention (see, e.g., press release from the IDC and panel discussion programme)
• limiting migrants' access to protection (see, e.g., JRS Europe's report launch)
• Palestinian situation (see UNRWA press release)
• statelessness (see, e.g., the ENS' call for greater inclusion of the stateless)

December 10 also marks the culmination of 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, a campaign to raise "awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels."  Read more from UNHCR and the Women's Refugee Commission.

[Image credit: © 2012 Empire State Building Company LLC in "Empire State Building Honors Human Rights Watch," 7 Dec. 2012]

Tagged Events & Opportunities.