Guest Author - Sandy Mullins

December 10, 2005 is Human Rights DayUnited Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 by resolution 217a (III) by 48 countries (states) voting in favor. In June 1993, the number of countries that re-ratified the Declaration increased to 171.

Human Rights are still an issue that we need to be diligent about. As in the previous article on the International Day for the Absolution of Slavery (see related links). All people are entitled to live free of persecution and the same basic rights many of us take for granted.

Some famous quotes:
”Basically we could not have peace, or an atmosphere in which peace could grow, unless we recognized the rights of individual human beings... their importance, their dignity... and agreed that was the basic thing that had to be accepted throughout the world.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, USA

”I have cherished the ideal a democratic and free society... it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, who was imprisoned from 1964-1990.
”Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Former US President, Four Freedoms Speech, 6 January 1941

For more information and ways of celebrating and observing you can find ideas at: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (offsite link)

For more information on the Baha’i Faith:Baha'i Links