Human Rights Day

10 December 2012,  Human Rights Day

I participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,  as a young diplomat, member of the Ethiopian Delegation to the UN General Assembly and witnessed its adoption on 10 December 1948. I was sitting in the Third Committee for Social and Economic Affairs. 

Mrs  Elenor Roosvelt and Mrs Nehru were the principal actors in the deliberations on the Charter. 



Having worked closely with Mrs Roosevelt, she invited my then wife, Martha Nassibou and I and a Mexican Delegate to a private dinner. She also invited all the Third Committee members to a luncheon in their family estate in  Hyde Park, New York.

Martha Nassibou, Eleanor Roosevelt and UN diplomats at Roosevelt House, Hyde Park, New York

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most idealistic and noble principle and international rule that the UN has produced. Despite many challenges it has now come into its real and universal implementation, not only at the level of States but accessible and inforceable for individual victims.

With the theme MY VOICE COUNTS   this year the UN has placed the " spotlight on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized — to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making." 

It is extremely relevant at this historical time when ordinary people are standing up, at the risk of their lives, for their political rights in countries where freedom of speech and choice have been stifled for so long.

We have come a long way and the Declaration of Human Rights guides us still towards the attainment of justice and the development of peaceful societies.