Human Rights Day: “My voice counts” by UN Human Rights Office 11:57am 8th Dec, 2012   "Where we come from does not determine who we can become. What we look like places no limits on what we can achieve. We should all have the right to express ourselves, all have the right to be heard, all have the right to be what we can be: To reach for the sky and touch the stars. No matter who we are, no matter whether we are man or woman, or rich or poor: My voice, my right. My voice counts." — Desmond Tutu, a key figure in the defeat of apartheid in South Africa, Nobel Prize Laureate, first black Archbishop of South Africa.    Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of South Africa is one of those supporting the My voice, my right. My voice counts on Human Rights Day, campaign on 10 December. Others lending their support, include: the lawyer and human rights activist from Pakistan, Asma Jahangir; Olympic gold medalist, Jamaican Usain Bolt; Roma rights campaigner, Lurie Caldarari; Chinese human rights defender Wu Qing; from Lebanon five year old school girl Maria Maaloui; and the South African Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius.    On Human Rights Day 2012, the UN Human Rights Office is stressing that everybody has the right to have their voice heard and to have a role in making the decisions that shape their communities. Each one of us should be able to choose those people who will represent us in all governance institutions, to stand for public office, and to vote on the fundamental questions that shape our individual and collective destines.    In a statement marking the Day, High Commissioner Navi Pillay said those people who have gone onto the streets in the past few years are asking for “an end to a situation where governments simply decide what is best for their populations without even consulting them.”    “They are asking for their right to participate fully in the important decisions and policies affecting their daily lives,” Pillay said.    Human Rights Day will be celebrated this year in Geneva with an event which will canvass the views of a wide range of people whose experiences give them a unique perspective on inclusion and the right to participate in public life.    From Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy party will deliver keynote remarks via satellite link. The President of the International Federation of Human Rights, Souhayr Belhassen, a global rights campaigner especially for women’s rights will be present in Geneva, along with Chief Francis Kariuki from Kenya who uses tweets and text messages to unify and mobilize his community of mostly farmers.    Valeriu Nicolae from Romania, works for the rights of the Roma in Europe. He will be in Geneva to participate in the discussion, as will Romel Joseph, a blind musician from Haiti who will offer his perspective on the barriers to participation faced by the disabled. Joseph will also perform a program of classical music at the event with fellow musicians Tido Dejan, Victoria Jospeh and Iona Lupaºcu.    For the UN Human Rights Office, 10 December this year assumes a special significance because it will also see the launch of the Arabic language version of the Office website. The project will enable access to the wealth of information on the Human Rights website to all Arabic speakers.    In New York on Human Rights Day, the focus will be on the new media technologies, and their influence on the global movements for greater participation.    At a special event in New York a number of guests from all regions of the world have been invited to discuss participation in public life, including: Australian, Jeremy Heimans, from Avaaz.org a global web movement aiming to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere; Haitian, Chenet Torrilus, from the Haitian Association of Volunteers for Democracy which promotes youth participation in policy making; from Kenya, Pauline Wanja who runs Living in a Shanty Town which tries to help young people break the cycle of poverty; and from Egypt Ahmed Maher co founder of the pro democracy April 6 Youth Movement.    The UN Human Rights field offices, Civil Society groups in many countries and other UN organisations all have organized events to mark Human Rights Day.    Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Human Rights Day - 10 December 2012    Millions of people have gone on to the streets over the past few years, in countries all across the world, emboldened by what is happening elsewhere, some demanding civil and political rights, others demanding economic, social and cultural rights.    This groundswell is not simply a question of people demanding freedom of expression and freedom to say what they think and make clear what they want.    They are asking for much more than that. They are asking for an end to a situation where governments simply decide what is best for their populations without even consulting them. They are asking for their right to participate fully in the important decisions and policies affecting their daily lives, at the international, national and the local levels. Many people in many countries have been making it clear they are fed up with their leaders treating them with disdain and ignoring their needs, ambitions, fears and desires.    They have been, in effect, asking for what has been, for more than sixty years, under international law, rightfully theirs. They have been asking for the human rights laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – which is commemorated every year on 10 December – and subsequently fleshed out in other binding international treaties.    Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives. Every person shall have the right to vote and be elected, and to have access to public service, as well as to free expression, assembly and association. These are among the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which 167 States are party. And they have been restated in many similar ways in other laws and documents.    These rights are supposed to apply to everyone. No one should be excluded from any of them because they are female, belong to a minority, or worship a certain religion; or because they are gay, have a disability, have particular political beliefs, are migrants or belong to a certain racial or ethnic group. We all should have a voice that counts in our societies. We should all have free, active and meaningful participation in both economic and political affairs.    Unfortunately, many people don’t.    Instead they are ignored. Or, worse, they are actively persecuted, and the people who are trying to help them gain their rights – the human rights defenders – are intimidated, threatened, and persecuted as well. Sometimes, it is less deliberate, more insidious: certain individuals or groups are simply not given the opportunity: the opportunity to raise their voice, or use their brains and talents to achieve the successes of which they are capable, to climb out of poverty or achieve high office – or even any office.    Many millions of people cannot even dream of aiming high, they just dream of getting by – of surviving until tomorrow.    That may be because they have not been to school, or because they have no health care, no adequate shelter, insufficient food, and none of the basic rights and services that would give them the opportunity to build a better future.    Or it may be because they are specifically excluded from seizing opportunities by discriminatory laws or practices. Or because, through no fault of their own, they are stateless, citizens of nowhere, and therefore not only do not have a voice, but do not officially exist.    Or it may simply be because their leaders are so focused on their own grip on power and wealth that they simply don’t care what happens to those whose lives they govern. They’ll give just enough to keep people quiet and stop them protesting. If they are obstinate and raise their voice, they will lock them up, torture them or find other ways to distract them, silence them or make them disappear.    But in the past two years, people in many countries have raised the stakes, and made it clear that “just enough” is no longer good enough. In many countries, they have confronted their governments head on, not just in the Middle East and North Africa, but in other parts of the world as well, on issues covering the full range of fundamental civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights.    In a number of countries in recent months, we have continued to see the most extreme examples of rights being trampled underfoot. Many thousands of men, women and children tortured to death, raped, bombed, shelled, shot, forced from their homes, deprived of food, water, electricity and health care by their own governments or by armed groups, apparently intent on nothing more than their own hold on power. These are governments and non-state actors who are continuing to behave in a way that is the complete antithesis of everything we celebrate on Human Rights Day.    Today, I salute all those who have suffered so much seeking what is rightfully theirs, and all those people in other countries who in their own way – whether it is in Santiago or Cairo, Athens or Moscow, New York or New Delhi – are also saying we have a voice, we have our rights and we want to participate in the way our societies and economies are run. Because that is how it should be. Visit the related web page
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