The 10th of December is International Human Rights Day and marks the 63rd
anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. From a rights perspective
2011 was an extraordinary year which saw ordinary men and women standing up against
dictatorships in the form of protests and in the use social media.
People power
influenced the toppling of a number of regimes in the Arab world such as in Egypt,
Tunisia and Libya in what has become known as the “Arab Spring”.
This year
the United Nations has focused on the power of social media to mark Human Rights Day.
Speaking
at a Q & A session UN in New York the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi
Pillay said in 2011 “Human Rights went viral.”
In his message U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said that Human Rights belong to everyone.
But, he added, “unless
we know them, unless we demand they be respected, and unless we defend our right _
and the right of others _ to exercise them, they will be just words in a decades-old
document.''Listen to Lydia O'Kane's report