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Dec. 1, 2000
Universal Human Rights Month
By Kim Carter
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948 without a dissenting vote. Universal Human Rights Month offers the opportunity for increasing both our awareness and our activism regarding human recourse "to rebellion against tyranny and oppression."
Essential Information
The Human Rights Library
Developed by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center, this site provides access to more than 6,500 human rights documents and materials. Accessible in English, Spanish, French, and Russian, the archive can be browsed by subject or searched by key word. Human Rights Search Engines provide the capability of searching multiple human rights sites at once. Essential documents, treaties, and other reference materials are available as are links to more than 2,400 sites relevant to human rights. A comprehensive Human Rights Education center provides timelines, curriculum, and online projects for youth.
The People's Decade of Human Rights Education
This site is dedicated to human rights learning for social and economic change. Twenty-three issues are detailed, such as aging, ethnicity, education, sexual orientation, and poverty, with relevant citations from leading international human rights documents. Visitors are exhorted "to learn how human rights relate to social and economic injustices in your community. Discover how increasing awareness of human rights can strengthen and invigorate efforts for change. Learn what obligations and commitments your government has made to ensure the realization of human rights for all, and hold your government accountable. Know your human rights, and claim them!"
Derechos Human Rights
Derechos is the first Internet-based human rights organization. Access online publications, the Human Rights News Mailing List, ideas and links to human rights actions, and links to affiliated human rights organizations from Derechos' home page. On the "Human Rights Around the World" page, click on an area of the world to view regional human rights violations. "Human Rights Actions" will provide guidelines for writing a postcard to a prisoner, sending a letter to a government, or participating in a higher-level action.
Current News
OneWorld.net
OneWorld believes "no medium is message-free: no communicator is value-free." Committed to change for the better, OneWorld offers daily news, special reports, campaigns, and perspectives on world issues. In particular, the OneWorld Guides are designed to provide starting points for thinking about key topics of human rights and sustainable development. All points of view are included, from writers around the globe!
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. Read current news, check the annual reports, use the clickable world map for pop up screens with HRW country reports, read commentaries, or learn about specific campaigns and how you can help. The campaign to stop the use of child soldiers includes sample letters you can send to the President, the Secretary of Defense, the First Lady, the Secretary of State, your Congressional representatives, and to the leadership of Sudan and Uganda as well as to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
This organization focuses on strengthening independent human rights advocacy at the local level. Particularly concerned with protecting asylum seekers as well as lawyers and advocates, LCHR offers current headlines, calls to action, and the Legislative Action Center, where you can research tips for communicating with Congressional Members and staff, learn about the legislative process, and search for contact information for media organizations in your area.
Witness Rights Alert
This site offers a bi-weekly series of human rights videos introduced by celebrities and advocates from around the world. A project of Peter Gabriel and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, WITNESS provides human rights activists with video cameras and training in video and investigative techniques. Search the WITNESS archives or view the current features showing police, government, and corporate abuses. Action Alerts provide guidelines for how you can help.
Human Rights Internet
Human Rights Internet is a gateway to human rights on the Web. Scout for human rights internships and jobs, view world events related to human rights, and access a variety of HRI's publications and reports. Read about United Nations processes and conferences, including the UN World Conference on Racism, scheduled to be held in South Africa in 2001. Participate in one of the online forums about specific human rights issues or search the human rights education and the Internet Directory database of human rights Web sites.
Hotspots
Human Rights International Alliance
This site has a special emphasis on non-violence and the protection of individuals' lives, believing "the right to life is the most important right amongst all." Join the Human Rights Network mailing list to express your views and exchange of information about violations of human rights around the world. View the Resolutions and Recommendations from the Seminar on Women's Rights held in Beijing in September, 2000, see photographs from the international Children's Rights conference, or get information about the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Biographies of Prisoners of Conscience are featured along with U.N. Statements and Country Reports related to various issues of human rights.
Eurasianet.org
Eurasianet provides news and analysis from Central Asia and the Caucasus, with a feature section on human rights monitoring and actions. Here you can read the latest developments in religious and ethnic persecution, and the struggle to bring democratic reform to Central Asia. The Human Rights Archives provide recent news and analysis on political prisoners, the impact of elections and the Internet's impact on freedom of speech in Central Asia, along with a variety of other topics pertinent to an area of political instability.
Human Rights in China
This international non-governmental organization was founded by Chinese scientists and scholars to monitor human rights in the People's Republic of China and provide advocacy and education among Chinese people inside and outside the country. Join the Tiananmen Mothers Campaign for accountability for the crimes of the Beijing massacre or take action on freeing the 9-year-old Panchen Lama. Read personal stories of worker's abuse and firsthand accounts of Chinese orphanages. Whatever topic you pursue, you'll find a way to take action and make a difference.
Human Rights and the Drug War
This Web site provides an alternative look at the U.S. Drug War through testimonies, art, poetry, and photo exhibits of the nonviolent drug offenders and their families. With the U.S. prison population more than 2 million for the first time in history, largely due to the Drug War, this Web site questions the impact of this "unwinnable war" and its impact on Americans and their families.
Email: Kim Carter
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