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Hunter College and the U.N. Celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Hunter College and the U.N. Celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, holding a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This December 10th marked the 68th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a seminal moment for the international respect and acknowledgement of human dignity. This historic document was adopted and proclaimed by international world leaders of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 in Paris—and this year, the celebration of this momentous occasion took place at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.

Roosevelt House's legacy as the 25-year home to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt made it a particularly fitting site for this event. The formation of the United Nations was FDR's greatest and final dream, a governing body that would help prevent the kinds of atrocities the world had just seen during World War II and join countries across the globe in common values of peace and cooperation. And it was Eleanor, his chief advisor and voice of conscience, who spearheaded the formulation of the Universal Declaration, serving as the head of the Human Rights Commission and passionately advocating for what she called "the international Magna Carta for all mankind."

The UN celebrates the anniversary of the signing annually with Human Rights Day, an international call to address human rights issues and celebrate our common humanity. This year, the Roosevelt House event held on December 9th kicked off the "Stand Up For Someone's Rights Today"  campaign, a call from the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights for people to defend one another's rights on a moment-to-moment, person-to-person level. This mandate draws directly from Eleanor Roosevelt's own language: "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?" she asked—and then answered: "In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world...Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

"What better site to commemorate this sacred anniversary than Hunter's own Roosevelt House, the place where Eleanor Roosevelt incubated her passion for human dignity and equality of opportunity—and moreover, the UN held its first sessions at Hunter North, at that time located in the Bronx," said President Jennifer J. Raab. The December 9th event drew experts and officials from the UN and other human rights organizations, including Jan Eliasson, United Nations Deputy Secretary General. A panel discussion moderated by Margarent Besheer, the UN correspondent for Voice of America, led several human rights defenders from around the world through a conversation about the conditions they face, sharing their own personal stories and their larger observations about the protections of human rights.

A week later, Roosevelt House held another commemorative event honoring an important milestone in the protection of international human rights, marking the anniversary of the UN General Assembly's adoption of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These two documents, issued in 1966, built upon the 1948 Declaration and the three of them together comprise the entirety of the International Bill of Human Rights.

On December 15th, Roosevelt House marked the 50 year anniversary of the completion of the Bill with two panel conversations exploring its development and implementation. The first panel, "From Declaration to Covenants & the Quest for Universal Ratification," welcomed academics, scholars, and public policy experts from several New York based universities and a video message sent by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, and the second panel, "Impact of the Covenants, Past and Future," featured representatives from Ivy League institutions and human rights nongovernmental organizations. Audiences got an in-depth perspective about the applications - and limitations - of the Bill of Human Rights and the ways in which our global commitment to guard against atrocity and injustice can be strengthened.

They also received a preview of the next special exhibit that will grace Roosevelt House in the coming months, a series of 30 photographs by international artists that illuminate and demonstrate the principles of the Covenants. This exhibit, which was commissioned by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and previously showcased in Geneva in 2015, will provide visitors to Roosevelt House an opportunity to engage directly with the ideas of the Bill of Human Rights as seen in human contexts, through the eyes of great thinkers and seers.

Roosevelt House remains dedicated to keeping the Roosevelts' commitment to human rights alive, and it is in the spirit of that mission that it continues to carry out public programming—free to all—educating and engaging with students and Hunter community members about the sanctity of those rights and the movements worldwide to protect them. Said President Raab, "This Hunter-Roosevelt synergy continues to animate our student and public programs in human rights and public policy, and is evoked in our Hunter motto-'The care of the future is ours.'"

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