Human Rights Day 2010 on 10 December recognizes the work of human rights defenders worldwide who act to end discrimination.  The day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

Acting alone or in groups within their communities, every day human rights defenders work to end discrimination by campaigning for equitable and effective laws, reporting and investigating human rights violations and supporting victims.

While some human rights defenders are internationally renowned, many remain anonymous and undertake their work often at great personal risk to themselves and their families.

The UN Human Rights Day 2010 website has profiles of some human rights defenders working around the world to end discrimination, including:

Courageously combating discrimination against homosexuals: Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel (Mongolia)

Mr. Tsedendemberel is the Advocacy Programme Manager for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Centre based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The LGBT Centre is the first-ever Mongolian non-governmental organization mandated to uphold, protect and ensure the human rights of sexual minorities. The Centre submitted a report on LGBT rights in Mongolia to the UN’s Human Rights Council in 2010, risking their personal safety to do so. When Mongolia was reviewed by the Council’s Universal Periodic Review process in November 2010, Mr. Tsedendemberel traveled to Geneva to conduct advocacy and to “make sure the often suppressed voices of the Mongolian LGBT community were heard at the United Nations.”

Speaking out for indigenous rights: Dora Alonso (Guatemala)

Eighteen-year-old Dora Alonso is from Guatemala’s vast Mayan indigenous community and raises her voice against discrimination towards all indigenous people, in particular women and girls. She is a member of Guatemala’s Children’s Parliament, a national organization for Mayan, Xinca, Garifuna and Ladino children and youth. The Parliament’s work focuses on the promotion of health, education, gender equality, respect for identity and the prevention of sexual exploitation and child abuse. The Parliament also promotes non-discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS. In her own role, Dora is responsible for the Parliament’s communications arm, providing information about the organization and implementing prevention campaigns.

Documenting human rights violations around the world: Roberto Garretón (Chile)

During the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, Mr. Garretón was arrested for publishing an article on human rights violations by the regime. He was a member of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, an organization symbolic of the struggle for human rights, which spoke out against repression under Pinochet, defended the rights of torture victims and prisoners and sought to locate the disappeared. Mr. Garretón’s personal background lends itself to his work as a human rights lawyer and his current role as a member of the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which considers petitions from individuals or groups concerning cases of arbitrary deprivation of liberty. From 1994 to 2001, Mr. Garretón also served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, documenting human rights violations in that country.

Using the law to combat racial and other discrimination: Gay McDougall (USA)

Currently serving as the first United Nations Independent Expert on minority issues, Ms. Gay McDougall is a human rights lawyer with a long history of activism in civil rights. Growing up in segregated Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. McDougall was excluded from many public places as a child. She was the first black student admitted to her college and faced discrimination and racism on a daily basis. She went on to become Executive Director of the US-based international non-governmental organisation Global Rights between 1994 and 2006. Among her many international roles, she has served as an Independent Expert on the UN treaty body that oversees the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and was one of five international members of South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission, which successfully organized and administered that country’s first non-racial elections.

Breaking a vicious cycle of discrimination against Roma communities: Sri Kumar Vishwanathan (India/Czech Republic)

Mr. Sri Kumar Vishwanathan, originally from India, has been a human rights defender of the Roma for 14 years. He has worked tirelessly to build bridges between Roma and non-Roma communities and his leadership and initiative led to the creation of the Common Life Village in Ostrava, Czech Republic, where families of both Roma and non-Roma ethnicities live together as a single community. He has also established dialogue between the Roma and the police forces, starting a project where Roma women work as assistants (inter-cultural mediators) with the police to help break the vicious cycle of exploitation of Roma families by thugs from their own community. He has also been consistently involved in providing assistance to Roma families who have been victims of brutal racist attacks. He still lives with his family in one of the most repressed Roma ghettos.

Providing hope and inspiration to HIV positive patients: Me Maphallang Ponoane (Lesotho)

Ms. Me Maphallang Ponoane has experienced firsthand the high levels of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS. As a widow and mother of four children living in Lesotho, southern Africa, she bravely decided to disclose her HIV status to her family, community and her entire district. In 2004, after recovering from a long HIV/AIDS-related illness, Ms. Ponoane joined a support group in her district. The group is now mandated to mobilize communities against stigma and discrimination and to provide care and support for members. Ms. Ponoane works as an “expert patient” and lay counselor in the government hospital in Quthing, promoting positive living for both HIV-positive and tuberculosis patients.

More stories of human rights defenders can be found on the Human Rights Day website.

Please join us for the 2010 UConn Democracy Dialogue at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, Nov. 15 at 7 pm. 

For information and library and other local resources on food security and food politics in conjunction with the event, please visit http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/rajpatel. 

Stuffed & Starved – The Value of Food in the World Today
Lecture by author and activist, Raj Patel
Part of the UConn Democracy Dialogue Series

Monday, November 15, 2010
7pm
Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts
Free with UConn ID, but monetary donations accepted for the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic, CT

Half the world is grossly overfed; half of it is starving. Food policy expert, journalist, activist, and author of the international bestseller Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Raj Patel traces the causes of this crisis from farm to fork, revealing a greatly flawed food system dominated by a few, powerful, major corporations. Ultimately, it is the power of these modern food giants influencing the environmental, social, and economic factors that determines how food ends up on tables throughout the world.

Educated at Oxford and Cornell, Raj Patel has worked for prestigious international organizations including the World Bank and WTO as well as for regional groups like the Land Research Action Network and the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute.

For his harsh criticism of global corporate methods, Patel has been tear-gassed on four continents. His thoughts on food, hunger and globalization have appeared both in scholarly journals and in such major news sources as the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Newsweek, NBC’s The Today Show, the BBC, and NPR. He recently returned from working in South Africa and is currently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. His appearance at UConn is open to the public with a $5 donation to the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic, CT.

The Human Rights Film Series is back!

Screen shot from "Children of Shadows," by filmmaker Karen Kramer.

This year, the theme is Human Rights in the Americas, and we’ll be kicking things off with a screening of Children of Shadows, featuring a Q & A and reception with filmmaker Karen Kramer on Wednesday, September 15, at 4 pm in Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.   More information is available on the Dodd Center’s website. 

In Haiti, many parents are forced by destitution and desperation to give away their children. The children, who may be as young as four years old, then go to live and work for other families as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. They are known as “restavek” children. 

Children of Shadows follows the children as they go through their daily chores – the endless cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, going to the market, or going to run errands. In heartbreaking interviews, the children speak openly and shyly about the lives they are forced to lead. Their “aunts” (adoptive caretakers) speak openly and proudly of the vast mountain of work that “their” restavek does for them. The camera goes deep into the countryside to interview the peasant families as to what kind of situation would force them to give away one or more of their children.

Please join us for an Open House at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.  The event will include interactive displays, presentations and one-on-one conversations to facilitate the discovery of the rich resources in the Archives that will help with your classes and your own personal research. 

Wednesday, April 14
4:00-6:00pm
Dodd Research Center

You are welcome to come and go as your schedule allows, but if you have a particular interest in the presentations, the schedule is as follows:

4:15-Welcome
4:30-Exploring the collections with our new search feature
4:45-New tools for using our digital resources
5:00-The distinctive sounds of the Victrola

Refreshments will be provided.