On this International Human Rights Day, we see a world that leaves us with plenty of reasons to despair. Wars, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and glaring inequalities all weigh on people and our planet. They weigh on our consciences too.
As much as there is time for despair and mourning, there is also time for hope and action. Human rights reflect this duality. They emerged as a response to war, discrimination, and exploitation. They have since been used by people around the world as a tool to make their voices heard and to live as equals in dignity and respect.
This year’s United Nations campaign is “Our Rights, our Future, Right Now”. We join them, as well as civil society and individuals worldwide, to bear witness to the preventive, protective, and transformative force of human rights to forge a better world for all.
Human rights are preventive
We use international human rights law to shed light on cases that would otherwise remain “out of the picture”, if not silenced by governments. Central to this is alerting the international community about underreported situations such as a forgotten conflict in Africa, migrants’ hardships throughout the Americas and Europe, or the coastal communities in the Pacific affected by rising sea levels. By raising awareness of human rights violations and abuses, we aim to prevent some situations from occurring or – when they occur – from deteriorating further.
Human rights are protective
When laws are either ignored, violated, or actively discriminate against parts of the population, human rights are both protective shields against arbitrariness and standards to course-correct. We use these standards and the relevant mechanisms established by the UN to push States toward improved protection for groups affected by harmful policies and practices, may they be children in Benin or Uganda or Indigenous people in Guatemala or West Papua, for instance.
Human rights are transformative
Advancing human rights is also about creating a fairer world. When we uphold human rights, we also seek to reshape unjust societies and development models for the generations that will follow us. The global recognition of the right to a healthy environment two years ago, which we advocated for, has given activists an additional lever to protect the environment in the long run.
Human rights are a pathway to solutions to forge a better tomorrow.
Photo by OHCHR