What Matters/Human Rights

Human Rights

US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.
• In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations has stated in clear and simple terms the rights which belong equally to every person.
• These rights belong to you.
• Read your rights at: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights web page.
  • Use this questionnaire to assess the level of human rights in your region.
  • Consult the Global Peace Index to learn how peaceful your region is.
  • Learn what the Human Rights Watch organization has learned about your region.
  • Learn how your region ranks on the Political Terror Scale.
• They are your rights.
• Familiarize yourself with them.
• Help to promote and defend them for yourself as well as for your fellow human beings.
• If you are the victim of oppression—within your family, workplace, community, or nation—it can be very difficult to attain these human rights for yourself. Perhaps this advice on "Responding to Tyrants" can suggest some options available to you.

Assignment:

• Use this questionnaire to assess the level of human rights in your region.
• Based on your responses to the questionnaire, identify the primary impediments to human rights in your region.
• Imagine living in a different region, where human rights are either better protected (if you live in an oppressed region) or where they are denied (if you are fortunate to live in a region with good human rights protections).
• Complete the questionnaire as if you are living in that other region.
• Based on the questionnaire responses, and the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights what action would be most effective in improving human rights in the oppressed region?