Countdown to Christmas

10 - Human Rights

• Universal Dignity, Equality & Liberty: Human rights introduced the revolutionary idea that every individual, regardless of their background, possesses inherent dignity and is entitled to equal treatment. Though often taken for granted today, this principle has been at the heart of liberal struggles for centuries.
   
• Protection from Power: Human rights act as shields. They protect us not only from the overreach of the state or powerful individuals but from society at large. They ensure that the tiniest of minorities—the individual—remains safe, no matter one’s position in society. And don't get this wrong; this is not anti-social. It's the opposite. That’s the very safety we need to be social and to interact with each other.
   
• The Symbol of Progress: Human rights are no longer just abstract ideas. They have been codified into documents worldwide—and enforced. Of course, this doesn’t make them untouchable. But they gave humanity a concrete roadmap for justice. They are our shining star of moral progress.

Christmas Miracle

As with most innovations that we have seen so far, there is no one single person that “invented” human rights. In fact, the establishment of human rights as a shared belief took painstakingly long. One might say, that they are the result of collective, century-long, and often tragic human struggle. And that’s why in many, the real, modern Christmas miracle occurred on December 10, 1948, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This was the very moment the abstract idea of human rights became the declared moral foundation of the world.