#thisisHumanRights

By Niya Garrett
Spelman College Senior
2013 Social Justice/YWTF Fellow

The world after WWII was one in economic and social chaos but, in 1945, nations came together to create the United Nations to promote peace security and cooperation among countries in this new world era. The UN created the Declaration of Human Rights, which set the standard of the basic rights of all humans. To celebrate the 65th anniversary of this legislation, the Younger Women’s Task Force of Atlanta launched the #thisisHumanRights Campaign, centered around social media i.e. Facebook, Twittter, and Instagram. The first place where the campaign launched was on the campus of Spelman College, a historically African-American Women’s college. So every Market Friday, you could catch me, camera in hand, walking around Lower Manley asking people for pictures holding signs of what they think human rights are The goal of the campaign was to help students to engage and start a conversation and to share what human rights mean to them. Although I had mainly women participants, I was able to feature males from Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University.

                                         

As students and Americans, we often speak of Human Rights or discuss the Human Rights violations of others but what are Human Rights exactly? Often when approaching students to be featured in the campaign, I was met with hesitation or apprehension as many students declared they “didn’t know what to say” or simply, “didn’t know”. I have to admit I was quite surprise especially being a student in the Atlanta University Center, an educational hub for Black Americans containing three HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges & Universities). As we are very aware of the struggles and history of African-Americans and other peoples of color, I thought students would write thought provoking answers. Or at Spelman, an all-women college, write answers pertaining to the current situation of the political battle of a woman’s right over her body. I received a lot but some were generic responses, which were true, but lacked the depth I was seeking. When defining Human Rights, even for myself, it takes time to engage and conceptualize the situations around the world. One Spelman student wrote that Human Rights is “not limited to National Origin”, which engaged controversy concerning immigration and the rights of immigrants in the United States. As a young woman witnessing the women’s bodies becoming nothing more than a political agenda, I see Human Right as having a voice and choice over my own body. As young people we need to step outside of our bubbles and actually see and conceptualize what is occurring in the world.

So what does Human Rights mean to me?

Human Rights are the most basic rights that everyone are entitled to regardless of gender, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. The freedom to prosper and exist should be in possession of all people. The Declaration of Human Rights was ratified in the late 1940s, in world quite different from the one in 2013, but its 30 articles are still more than relevant and necessary today. Human Rights is my own personal, and other women’s, freedom of making choices concerning our own bodies or Ana’s, my Ecuadorian host sister, ability to access adequate healthcare and education. Human Rights is the freedom for millions of children enslaved in human trafficking, the right to a childhood or the women in the same situation, the right to choose sexual partners and control over their sexuality. Human Rights is ability for the residents of West End Atlanta access to healthy and affordable foods. The definition of Human Rights is more than a one-word answer but it should reflect the engagement of current issues in our world and local community.