Human rights are your rights.
From the beginning of your life until the end, human rights are
your rights. You are entitled to your human rights simply because you are a human being.
National and international laws confirm these rights as part of the contract between
governments and the people governed. Nobody, no matter what the person's authority or
powers may be, has license to decide that you are not entitled to your basic rights.
In other words, human rights are not privileges granted or taken
away by some authority because of who you happen to be. These rights remain yours,
regardless of where you live, what you believe, how you look, or whatever is happening in
the community or world around you.
As you might expect, what applies to you and your human rights
also applies to others. Everybody else. Everywhere on Earth. However great the differences
between you and someone else, whether in your own family or in some other part of the
world, you share the very same human rights. So in addition to being your personal
possession, human rights provide you with a connection to all peoples of the world.
This connection has repercussions in everyday life. When someone
fails to respect another person's human rights and gets away with it, that human rights
abuse comes a little closer to touching your life. Protecting human rights is everyone's
personal responsibility.
The German pastor Martin Niemoller, arrested by the Nazi regime
and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, described the way human rights abuses radiate
in ever-widening circles: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak
out--because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade-unionists, and I did not
speak out--because I was not a trade-unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not
speak out--because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to
speak out for me."
Speaking out is one of the best ways to protect human rights. And
every time you speak out to demand respect for your rights, or for other people's rights,
you bring worldwide human rights respect a little closer to reality.