You asked for it... Special Human Rights Day edition

Hello young adult friends. I hope you’re doing well as we move into the holiday season.

When we were down in El Salvador on our July Learning Tour, we spent a morning with Fatima, an illiterate single mother of four, who gave us a tour of the coffee plantation where she earns her (meager) living. Fatima has the unmistakable Mayan features of other indigenous people I have met in the region (the Salvadoran native people are descended from the nomadic Pupil people), so I asked at one point if she’d tell us a little about her indigenous background. “Oh—I’m not indigenous,” was her reply.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that she’d deny it—being seen as “Indian” in that and other cultures in the region is often seen as a mark of inferiority. The Salvadoran government itself denies that there are native people within its borders (calling itself “ethnically homogenous”) so as to not have to abide by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. “Hey, we don’t have any of them here.” (The World Bank estimates as many as 200,000 indigenous in El Salvador.) Plus, there was a massacre of 50,000 native people when they protested government policies just 75 years ago, so there are many incentives to keep quiet about one’s heritage.

December 10 is Human Rights Day—commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” are the first words of Article One. We may all be “born” this way, it’s not long afterwards that many millions of us lose these rights—including many of the world’s 370 million indigenous people like Fatima, whose freedom, equality and dignity…and courage to even claim their identity—have pretty much been stolen from them anywhere they’ve encountered the dominant culture.

Here are some of the most critical places in the world for human rights advocacy. Any of them could use additional voices—how about yours?

Burma—military government, imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner (Aung San Suu Kyi). Interview with a monk who was a leader of the Saffron Revolution (fall 2007 protests by the monks) on this page. Our Learning Tour—including eight young adults—is heading to Burma this January.

Congo—often called The War Against Women for the brutality against women enacted by both sides in the conflict. See the report on this page.

Darfur—on-going genocide by Arab Muslims against African Muslims in the west of Sudan. NCP will be sending Solidarity Workers to Sudan again this summer—not to Darfur, but to the community of Nimule, home to many refugees from Sudan’s conflicts.

Tibet—China’s efforts to overwhelm and take over this ancient kingdom have led to torture, political prisoners, and refugee flows. Here’s one of the leading advocacy groups.

USA—African Americans may be facing an anti-Obama backlash; hate crimes are up against them, while they’re down against every other racial category.

While they have resilience and intelligence and the same claim as we have to a dignified and decent life, millions of people in the world—whether women, or indigenous, or Tibetans, or others—have few if any ways to raise their voices against the ravages of ethnic cleansing, racial profiling, gender violence, or militarism and greed. We have that power—we have to find ways to use it on their behalf. Pick a cause, any cause. Just pick one.

Justice Fact: 1 billion children in the world are “denied a childhood” by lack of one or more of these essentials: food, clean water, shelter, education, information, health care, sanitation. (State of the World’s Children, UN) Article 25, UN Declaration on Human Rights: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services… Let them know you care.

Enviro Fact: Global warming could create 150 million “climate refugees” by 2050 due to rising sea levels, more severe weather, drought and disease. (Environmental Justice Foundation) Article 17 of UNDH: No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her property. Do something about it.

Faith Fact: “They marveled that he was talking to a woman, but none said, ‘Why are you talking with her.’” (John, chapter 4: the response of Jesus’ disciples upon finding him talking to the Samaritan woman) Article 2 of UNDHR: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, religion… Join women in their struggle for dignity and opportunity.
Keep the faith. Share the love. Use your voice.

David