Global Appeal for Human Rights Learning
Shulamith Koenig
Founding President PDHRE, People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning
USA
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains a beacon to the world, a powerful instrument that expressed the aspiration of human beings to live in dignity and with one another. Yet the Declaration’s hope and promise of “freedom from fear and freedom from want” remains an unrealized vision for too many. Human beings are consumed by barbarous acts that continue to outrage the conscience of humankind.
All people must know their human rights in order to live together in justice and dignity; to become agents of transformation and establish human rights as a way of life. Humanity—standing on the brink of devastation, with millions of people mired in poverty, environmental destruction, violence and oppression—aspires to live in a world of human dignity, freedom, and social and economic justice. Learning human rights bridges the chasm of despair. It liberates us from the prison of ignorance, and empowers us all to know, claim and make real our universal and inalienable human rights.
As we review the 1995-2004 United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, we note significant achievements and much that remains to be done to realize the values it enshrines. In defining the values for the Millennium Declaration, the world’s leaders affirmed, “Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice.” Human rights are the articulation of these universal human values.
The United Nations was founded with a vision of a world order built on the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable human rights of all. To secure this vision, all people must learn and act according to our universal human rights, which define a shared moral and legal framework for living in dignity within our varied communities.
Learning together also means unlearning the inhumanity, violence and injustice that plague the human condition. Learning from the experiences of people is as valuable as traditional teaching to embed the qualities of humility, empathy and mutual respect that underlie human rights. The voices of people deprived of human rights—and thus of their human dignity—are indispensable guides to learning our shared duties to the community, and to constructing a world where every individual and all organs of society secure universal respect for human rights for all. Through dialogue, interaction and learning we move from information to knowledge to realization of the imperatives of social and economic justice within a human rights framework. Learning human rights harnesses the energies of all people to develop a shared global culture of human rights.
We call for actions that enable all people to understand human rights, in the words of the Universal Declaration, as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations” and as “the highest aspiration of the common people.” We must make human rights learning a dynamic and powerful force to fulfill this promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Originated on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2005
Initiated by PDHRE, People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning www.pdhre.org
To add your signature to this Appeal, please send your endorsement to: pdhre@igc.org
Signatories
Shulamit Aloni
Professor of Law, former Israeli Minister of Education and Chairperson of the Civil Right Movement.
Oscar Arias
Nobel Peace Laureate, former President of Costa Rica.
Hannan Ashrawi
Chair, Human Rights Section at the Palestinian Authority. Professor of English.
Lloyd Axworthy
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada.
Emma Bonino
Former European Commissioner, i.a. responsible for the European Community Humanitarian Office.
Jimmy Carter
Nobel Peace Laureate, former President of the United States.
Susana Chiarotti -Regional Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights, Professor of Law
Richard Pier Claude , Professor Emeritus, Univ. of Maryland, Founding Editor, Human Rights Quarterly.
Radhika Coomaraswamy
Chairperson, National Commission of Human Rights of Sri Lanka. Former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence.
Ivanka Corti, Former Member and Chairperson of CEDAW
Virginia Dandan-
Chair, United Nations Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Shirin Ebadi
Nobel Peace Laureate. Professor of Law.
Sonia Gandhi
President Indian National Congress. Chairperson National Advisory Council, Government of India
Justice Richard Goldstone -Retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations War Crimes Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Thomas Hammerberg -Secretary General, The Olof Palme International Center.
Former Swedish Ambassador for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.
Vaclav Havel
Former President of Czechoslovakia and of the Czech Republic.
Noeleen Heyzer – Executive Director, UNIFEM
Jeremy Hobbs -Executive Director, OXFAM International.
Kamal Hossain Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh.
United Nations Special Rapportuer on Afghanistan.
Irene Khan
Secretary General , Amnesty International
Shulamith Koenig -2003 UN Human Rights Award,
Founding President PDHRE, People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning
Bernard Kouchner- Founder of “Doctors without Borders”.
Former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General in Kosovo.
Peter Leuprecht - Former Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Human Rights in Cambodia.
Stephen Marks
François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights, Harvard University.
Ian Martin - Vice President, International Center for Transitional Justice.
Former Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Neshad Asslani –
Founder and Director , Center for Human Right s Kosova,
Olara Otunnu- Special representative Of the General Secretary of the UN for Children and Armed Conflict.
Javier Pérez de CuéllarFifth United Nations Secretary General.
Adolfo Perez-Esquivel
Nobel Peace Laureate
Sonia Picado
President, InterAmerican Institute of Human Rights.
Elena Poniatowska - Author
Mary Robinson
Former President of Ireland.
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Adama Samassekou- President, African Regional Institute for Human Rights Education.
Former Minister of Education, Mali.
Mario Soares
Former President of Portugal
Juan Somavia – Director General , International Labor Organization
Danilo Turk - United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs.
Former Member of the Human Rights Committee.
The Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu
Nobel Peace Laureate
Burns H. Weston Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus.
Senior Scholar, UI Center for Human Rights The University of Iowa