Don’t take human rights for granted
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2024 (282 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
As Canadians, we acknowledge that we have rights that many other countries do not provide their citizens regarding non-discrimination on the basis of race, gender, language, or national or ethnic origin.
Human beings all deserve rights. On Dec. 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration of Human Rights is a worldwide consensus that governments must provide rights to everyone. Together, we can continue working to ensure that people from around the world get the rights they all deserve.
Being citizens of Canada gives us rights that are automatically handed to us from the day we are born; therefore, staying informed on those rights and how we get them is as equally important as having them.
To understand where our rights came from, it is important to understand the fundamentals of a human right. The United Nations defines a human right as: “Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings … They range from the most fundamental — the right to life — to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty. Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings” (un.org).
The moment we are born in Canada, we have rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the first international legal document to be created addressing these rights. It contains 30 articles describing the rights and how they are applied. This document has been around for 76 years this December. Despite the fact that it has been around for several decades, it unfortunately does not always hold high power in many countries.
According to itmustbenow.com, over 167 countries have been found guilty of violating basic human rights. In 2018, Global Slavery Index reported that over 40 million people (about the population of Canada) — men, women, and children —were subject to modern slavery. The worst offending countries include North Korea, Burundi and Iran. Although Canada is doing better than other countries, it still means that these rights should always be maintained.
It is important to recognize that the Declaration of Human Rights is a monumental document that gave Canadians the rights we still have today. On Dec. 10, we acknowledge the concrete importance of how our rights were received, often thanks to many Canadians and people around the world advocating for equality. Seventy-six years of rights for Canadians is a milestone in and of itself we should appreciate.
» Tatiana Dupuis is a Grade 12 student at École secondaire Neelin High School