The Lens of Human Rights
One of the first things the United Nations accomplished after its founding was to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document has guided the human rights commitments of governments, organizations, and individuals ever since. Over six decades after it was adopted, the UDHR remains an exceptional international covenant, and a touchstone for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and every other human rights organization worldwide.
Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile, member of the drafting sub-Committee, wrote:
“I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing — which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one’s personality. In the Great Hall…there was an atmosphere of genuine solidarity and brotherhood among men and women from all latitudes, the like of which I have not seen again in any international setting.”
We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – they even have an illustrated version for younger readers.