Archbishop Desmond Tutu, together with former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and Graça Machel, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela, on Monday launched a human rights campaign marking the 60th year since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The aim of the campaign is to get global backing for a signature campaign by a billion people in support of the declaration, and to draw attention to continuing abuses of human rights.
The three distinguished individuals are part of an organisation launched earlier this year by Mandela, known as the Elders, which is campaigning against human rights abuse. Delegations from the group have already visited Sudan and Chad to amplify the voices of those suffering from abuse in those two countries.
The Elders are to work with partner organisations such as Amnesty International, Action Aid and Civicus to promote the campaign, whose slogan is ”Every Human has Rights”.
”The enemy of human rights is silence,” Machel said at the launch of the campaign in Cape Town. There will be a focus of attention on encouraging sufferers of abuse to tell their stories, using all available means, ”including the internet”.
She said that at present 854-million people did not have enough food to eat — more than the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union. ”The number of child labourers in hazardous jobs, not in school, is double the total number of children in the US,” she said.
Tutu drew attention to an empty seat on the platform draped in a saffron cloth, which he said represented Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the democratic opposition in Burma. ”The deteriorating situation in Burma means we have to work for a situation where these principles [of human rights] will be recognised and respected,” Tutu said. — I-Net Bridge