AFP: Abuses persist as UN rights declaration turns 60
source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jkc7RghMDnMqx9zZBo-Rx46pF3IQ
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PARIS (AFP) — Six decades after the United Nations endorsed the fundamental principles of our shared human rights, campaigners Wednesday demanded action to defend these values against the worst abuses.
While for some the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was cause to celebrate great advances in dignity, angry voices were raised in countries such as China, Zimbabwe and Greece.
In China, where the years since the declaration have seen enormous economic advances but iron-fisted one-party rule, several human rights activists were rounded up and arrested in the days leading up to the anniversary.
Police detained at least four activists after 300 intellectuals, dissidents and writers signed Charter 08, an open letter published online calling for democracy in China and timed to coincide with the celebrations.
In Zimbabwe, black-robed lawyers marched on Parliament and the Supreme Court to protest human rights abuses -- including the kidnapping of activists -- by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's beleaguered regime.
"Violations of economic and social rights have ascended to new heights as Zimbabweans are shoved deeper into poverty as the country's economic meltdown descends to unprecedented lows," their petition read.
Meanwhile in Greece, young demonstrators rioted for the fifth straight day in protest at the slaying by police of a 15-year-old boy.
Other countries saw lesser violations of the spirit of the 1948 Declaration, such as in Iran, where state agents confiscated rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh's passport to prevent her from flying to Italy to receive an award.
Against this backdrop, champions of human rights were gathering in Paris to mark the anniversary.
Born out of the trauma of World War II, the principles enshrined in the accord shaped modern concepts of human dignity and served as a template for international rights conventions that followed.
Ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephane Hessel was to read its preamble before world officials, artists and rights groups at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT), in a ceremony at the Palais de Chaillot, where it was adopted on December 10, 1948.
"Still today, it is a text worth reading. It is perfectly relevant. All the more so because it has not been upheld -- and it is asking us to fight for it," Hessel, who helped draft the declaration, told AFP.
"We live in a world that tramples on human rights all the time."
While for some the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was cause to celebrate great advances in dignity, angry voices were raised in countries such as China, Zimbabwe and Greece.
In China, where the years since the declaration have seen enormous economic advances but iron-fisted one-party rule, several human rights activists were rounded up and arrested in the days leading up to the anniversary.
Police detained at least four activists after 300 intellectuals, dissidents and writers signed Charter 08, an open letter published online calling for democracy in China and timed to coincide with the celebrations.
In Zimbabwe, black-robed lawyers marched on Parliament and the Supreme Court to protest human rights abuses -- including the kidnapping of activists -- by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's beleaguered regime.
"Violations of economic and social rights have ascended to new heights as Zimbabweans are shoved deeper into poverty as the country's economic meltdown descends to unprecedented lows," their petition read.
Meanwhile in Greece, young demonstrators rioted for the fifth straight day in protest at the slaying by police of a 15-year-old boy.
Other countries saw lesser violations of the spirit of the 1948 Declaration, such as in Iran, where state agents confiscated rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh's passport to prevent her from flying to Italy to receive an award.
Against this backdrop, champions of human rights were gathering in Paris to mark the anniversary.
Born out of the trauma of World War II, the principles enshrined in the accord shaped modern concepts of human dignity and served as a template for international rights conventions that followed.
Ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephane Hessel was to read its preamble before world officials, artists and rights groups at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT), in a ceremony at the Palais de Chaillot, where it was adopted on December 10, 1948.
"Still today, it is a text worth reading. It is perfectly relevant. All the more so because it has not been upheld -- and it is asking us to fight for it," Hessel, who helped draft the declaration, told AFP.
"We live in a world that tramples on human rights all the time."
