Global perspective Human stories

UN marks Human Rights Day with appeals, messages and ceremonies

UN marks Human Rights Day with appeals, messages and ceremonies

President Julian Hunte presents award to one of the UN Human Rights winners
The United Nations system celebrated Human Rights Day around the world today, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan paying tribute to human rights defenders who “stand in the front lines of protection, casting the bright light of human rights into the darkest corners of tyranny and abuse.”

The United Nations system celebrated Human Rights Day around the world today, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan paying tribute to human rights defenders who “stand in the front lines of protection, casting the bright light of human rights into the darkest corners of tyranny and abuse.”

“The defence of human rights is not simply the responsibility of such brave people,” Mr. Annan said in a message. “It is the responsibility of us all. We must all be human rights defenders. And a good place to start is to defend those who champion human rights.”

He paid especial tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who died “along with 21 other dedicated servants of peace and human rights” in the 19 August attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad. “His death was a bitter blow to the cause of human rights,” he said.

At UN Headquarters in New York the General Assembly held a plenary meeting to award the winners of this year’s UN Human Rights prizes.

The prizes, awarded every five years for outstanding promotion and protection of civil liberties and fundamental freedoms, went to Enriqueta Estela Barnes de Carlotto of Argentina, an advocate for the disappeared; the taboo-lifting Family Protection Project Management Team of Jordan; Pufang Deng of China, the disability defender who is also the handicapped son of the country’s former leader; Shulamith Koenig of the United States, a human rights educator; and the Mano River Women's Peace Network in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

A posthumous award honoured Mr. Vieira de Mello. Presiding over the session General Assembly President Julian Hunte (St. Lucia) declared that the inalienable right of all peoples and human beings to the full range of human rights, including freedom, equality, dignity, social justice, self-determination and the right to be democratically governed, was today unquestionable. Those who violated such rights must know that they could not expect to do so with impunity, Mr. Hunte added.

Also at UN Headquarters the Tokyo-based United Nations University (UNU) held a panel discussion on the launch of the UNU book entitled Globalization of Human Rights.

The acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan assailed poverty, terrorism, state-perpetrated violence and “prejudice, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism, anti-other religions, and other forms of intolerance.”

“I plead for stronger measures of protection, nationally, regionally and internationally,” Mr. Ramcharan said in a message. “I call upon each government to review the adequacy of its protection mechanisms at home. I call upon subregional and regional organizations to ask what more they could do to strengthen human rights protection. I call upon the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on Human Rights and the human rights treaty bodies, each to consider what more it could do to strengthen human rights protection.”

In Bangkok, Thailand, the UN conference centre hosted a special ‘youth forum’ to raise awareness about child sexual exploitation and human rights challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, with UN field workers giving first-hand accounts of their experiences in dealing with human rights.

In Geneva, 22 independent experts of the UN Commission on Human Rights issued a statement condemning “all acts of intimidation and reprisal” against those cooperating with human rights bodies.

“We urge States to refrain from violating the rights of witnesses who cooperate or seek to cooperate with the United Nations and representatives of its human rights bodies, in particular their rights to life, to be free from torture, to personal freedom and security, and to freedom of expression and to impart information and ideas,” they said. “We also call on States to protect witnesses from threats, intimidation and reprisals from private individuals or groups."