Although most people have heard of the term “human rights,” many do not know exactly what it entails, but understanding one’s rights is the first step to protecting them, said Mary Shuttleworth, the director of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), a US non-governmental organization, yesterday in Taipei.
Shuttleworth was in Taiwan on the last stop of her world tour to promote human-rights awareness with youth. Since founding YHRI in 2001, she has been on four such trips, visiting more than 60 countries.
“Though in 1948 the UN published ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ containing 30 articles of rights that every world citizen is born with, more than 90 percent of people have only a vague understanding of them,” Shuttleworth said.
Because of this, when people, especially children, have their rights violated — including rights to privacy, freedom of thought and expression and food and shelter — they don’t even know it.
The common factors contributing to the lack of human rights of youth in all parts of the world — whether in developed or Third World countries — are poverty and apathy, she said.
“Because of poverty, many children in the world are denied access to food, shelter and education,” she said, adding that poverty also leads to unfair distribution of wealth between the rich and poor.
“What’s also detrimental is apathy — a common belief shared by people who think that ‘there is nothing they can do [for these children],’” she said.
In addition to meeting political leaders — Shuttleworth is scheduled to meet Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) today — the YHRI also makes educational tools based on the declaration’s articles to help people learn them.
YHRI has distributed millions of booklets titled What Are Human Rights? — an abridged version of the articles — in more than 20 languages, Shuttleworth said.
Since 2004, the group has also shown a human-rights music video, UNITED, the 2005 winner for “Best Human Rights Film” at the UNESCO-sponsored Taglio Corto Film Festival, to more than 130 million people, she said.
“If children can learn about their and other people’s rights at an early age, the world would be one of mutual respect and peace,” Shuttleworth said. “While human rights is an elusive concept for many people in the world, [we want to] make it a reality.”
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS