This year marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document, the result of extensive negotiations between the countries that made up the recently created United Nations organization, was created with the aim of establishing a set of fundamental agreements to ensure the freedom, equality and dignity of all people.
It is undeniable that the historical context of the moment demanded this declaration in a desperate cry. The world was finally coming to terms with the atrocities committed during World War II, and the effects of colonialism continued to wreak havoc across much of the planet. The feminist movement, for its part, continued to gain momentum to tread the broad path that lies ahead. Translated into other languages around the world, the document responded to the pressing needs of its time.
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If we turn the clock forward a few decades, the complex world in which we live presents us with a new crossroads and many other desperate cries, but also offers us a great new opportunity.
Some of the challenges are already well known: the growing authoritarianism that is taking over much of the world and the lack of global leadership, the climate crisis and the catastrophic inaction of states and companies, widespread inequality and attacks on human rights defenders. People, women and diversity, among many others. But other, new and more complex challenges are emerging, such as the use of artificial intelligence or the development of programs aimed at spying on those who oppose those in power, the lack of control over algorithms that spread hate messages in virtual space, real consequences and the profound impact of climate change on our health and the planet.
These challenges undoubtedly require new approaches and consensus at a global level. It is essential that leaders return to the table with the same spirit that brought them together in 1948. With the determination to implement an agenda of equality and justice that takes into account the power of large corporations and economic interests and the need for their inclusion, the negotiations turn to those who defend the rights agreed so many years ago and to all the voices that were not represented more than seven decades ago.
One of the most important insights in my decades of working with historically excluded and intentionally marginalized communities in America – such as Indigenous and Black peoples, women and LGBTIQ+ people, as well as those subjected to the ravages of environmental exploitation and destruction – is: without them, no change possible.
During these years we have accompanied thousands of people demanding justice, such as the mothers and fathers of the missing students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico; or the communities of indigenous peoples and farmers brutally oppressed by security forces in Peru. We have documented cases of crimes against humanity in Venezuela or arbitrary arrests and torture of people exercising their right to protest in Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, the United States and Colombia, among others. We accompany the victims of brutal repression in Nicaragua and Cuba; and thousands of refugees, making up the largest wave of forced migration in the continent’s history.
The X-ray picture of America, the most violent and unequal region on earth, is tragic. The illegal use of violence by states to silence those demanding accountability, the militarization of marginalized areas in failed attempts to ensure security, censorship against journalists and human rights defenders, gender-based violence, racism and the unprecedented refugee crisis is compounded by ineptitude Added to accountability is a lack of willingness by authorities to take action, bring those responsible to justice and protect those who suffer abuse.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Here too, in the Americas region, social movements have confronted the history of violence with enormous resilience and peaceful resistance, thereby setting very important milestones for the well-being of humanity. In Latin America, it is the various feminist movements that are breaking every possible barrier today, making the right to abortion a growing reality. Without the work of thousands of human rights defenders and victim families, there would be no justice in any case of state violence. The place where racism and its effects are finally a topic of conversation thanks to decades of tireless struggle. Here, in the home of the Amazon, the most biodiverse region on the planet, where historically oppressed indigenous peoples are bringing to our attention the issues they have raised their voices about for decades.
The world has come a long way since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but some of the provisions of that time can still bring us closer to the answers we need today to address the existential challenges we face, including the global leadership crisis.
Just like in 1948, our shared future depends on it.
Erika Guevara Rosas is Senior Global Director of Research, Advocacy and Policy at Amnesty International.
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