To Defend Your Rights, You Need to Know Them
- According to the UN refugee agency, a staggering 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes globally.
- An estimated 27.6 million people are victims of human trafficking worldwide.
- In 2022, there were 5.8 million visits to the United for Human Rights websites.
- More than 16,000 people completed the United for Human Rights online courses in 2022.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) consists of 30 articles detailing an individual’s “basic rights and fundamental freedoms.” Together, these form the basis of a civilization wherein all people can enjoy the freedoms they are entitled to and nations can coexist in peace.
Although the UDHR was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, nearly 75 years ago, most people still can’t name more than a handful of the 30 rights we all share, if any at all. Yet these same rights guarantee our safety, our security and our very lives.
That’s why the IAS continues to support United for Human Rights and Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) to provide human rights educational resources and activities that help individuals, educators and organizations in the dissemination and adoption of the Universal Declaration at all levels of society.
Here are a number of responses from students and educators who have used these human rights educational materials:
“I watched this to help with my religion exam but this video opened my eyes. I learned more in a nine‑minute clip than I did in my religion class for a full year!”
“I honestly loved this video. Way better than others that I have seen. This had my full attention. It was very interesting and had some powerful statements in it. This video did well on hooking their audience. Others that I have seen don’t. Well done, I have to say.”
“This was shown in our school, got swayed by it. AMAZING explanation about human rights.”
“I learned more about human rights, its history and how it was established. I believe that the greatest need of humanity today is respect—respect for the law, respect for life and definitely respect for others.”
“I’ve watched this video multiple times in social studies class, and literally it’s the only video that made me interested in class.”
“My history teacher showed me this and I started crying—like literally.”
“The video seems very good to me. It leads us to the conclusion that we must defend our rights, assert them and enforce them. We must all have equality in everything, since we are all human and we must treat each other with equal respect.”
“I am learning about rights I never knew I had! These are rights I now know about and can fight to protect.”
“Wow, fantastic video. As a teacher, this is a fantastic way to introduce human rights. Awesome.”
“These short public service announcements are extremely well made, but what gives them impact is that each of the 30 human rights is presented from a child’s point of view. It is one thing to be told about an adult being tortured by a dictatorial military regime in a faraway country, but it is quite another thing to see schoolyard bullying from a child’s point of view. Don’t get me wrong, these videos do not force you to turn away in disgust. Rather, they give hope. Three cheers for the team that put these together.”
“We established student human rights clubs at four high schools in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia. On April 8, 2023, we organized the first-round training using the training manual, booklets, videos and music of YHRI, and it turned out amazing! We saw promising engagement from the students, and after finishing the project in Bahir Dar, we are planning to expand that to youth groups in other cities as well. I appreciate YHRI’s relentless support to successfully accomplish our projects.”
