It’s time to step up on to my soap box for a moment. On this, the 54th international Human Rights Day, there are more problems than ever to address.
- Here in the U.S. there are two executions scheduled to take place today, when, according to Amnesty International, “more than half the countries of the world have turned their backs on judicial killing, recognizing its incompatibility with human dignity, its failure to have any special deterrent effect, and its capacity for fatal error”.
- Citizens throughout the African continent face a plethora of challenges, ranging from extreme poverty and overwhelming health problems to a lack of democratic rights.
- In Russia Amnesty International is “launching a major worldwide campaign to highlight the discrepancy between the human rights protection which those living in Russia have in international and national law, and the reality of widespread human rights abuses committed in a climate of impunity.”
- There is so much to be said about human rights abuses being faced by the people of Iraq.
- Recently in Glasgow an Iranian asylum-seeker was beaten and stabbed.
- Human Rights Watch is marking the day by releasing a report documenting eight months of investigation and challenges to the Australian government’s policy on asylum seekers, as a breach of the country’s international obligations to protect refugees.
That’s just a brief highlight…to illustrate that it’s bad everywhere. Which leaves me feeling frustrated, exhausted and overwhelmed. And torn between laying down and accepting things, as they are, and wanting desperately to do something…to bring about change. So what can I do? I’ll let you know when I figure it out. Sigh.