By Judith Blau
Admittedly, human rights – like virtue, impeccably good citizenship, brilliance and extraordinary creativity – are aspirations; sometimes not realized, sometimes a little roughed up, sometimes a lot. These days in Syria, human rights are roughed up a lot. But if you’re poor and a minority in America, you are also roughed up.
It’s hard when you are unemployed, a refugee, an African-American or a Latino, especially an undocumented Latino. Those who always experience economic hardships are bearing the brunt of the economic recession.
Yet we Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents have a sturdy framework that lays out for us the significance and importance of human rights. On April 21, 2009, the Town of Carrboro adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (as the second city in the nation to do so), and on Nov. 23 of the same year, the Town of Chapel Hill adopted it. This extraordinary document, adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and now affirmed by all 193 member-states of the U.N., lays out aspirations we all share.
Article 1 states:
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.â€
It lays out principles that are very similar to the U.S. Constitution regarding, for example, the presumption of innocence and jury trials. But it goes further and clarifies that everyone has the right to social security and to enjoy economic, social and cultural rights that are “indispensable for dignity and free development of one’s personality.â€
The Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro was founded in February 2009 to reassure the residents of Abbey Court Apartments that they are entitled to these rights and to give UNC students hands-on experience with partnering with Latinos, African-Americans and refugees.
The HRC will host the Celebrate Human Rights! Conference on Saturday, March 18 from 3 to 9 p.m. at The ArtsCenter in downtown Carrboro. Tickets are $7 and proceeds will benefit the HRC’s move to its new location at 107 Barnes St. Buy tickets at artscenterlive.org/event/performance/1096 or at The ArtsCenter box office the day of the event. Additional donations are welcome.
Judith Blau is the director of the Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and a professor of sociology at UNC.