A Human Rights Bill

Website for Dr. Joseph Wronka

Toward the Creation of a Human Rights Culture

Here is a link to a Human Rights Bill (House Bill 706) which is presently before the Massachusetts State Legislature. This bill will establish, among other things, a Commission which examine how Massachusetts laws and policies are in comparison with international human rights instruments, in particular, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the authoritative definition of human rights standards.

Link to Human Rights Bill 706 and information packet

Please find below the final revision of what has become known as the Amherst Convention on Human Rights and Duties, which the Town of Amherst is considering to endorse as law:

Amherst Convention on Human Rights and Duties

WHEREAS continuing disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of humanity; and

WHEREAS the advent of a world, where humans can live with dignity and enjoy their civil and political rights, such as freedom of thought, speech, belief, and the press; economic, social and cultural rights, such as rights to employment, food, shelter, and health care; and solidarity rights, such as rights to peace, self-determination, development, a clean environment, and a just social and international order is the highest aspiration of humanity; and

ACKNOWLEDGING the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved in 1948 without dissent by the UN General Assembly, including the United States, and today increasingly referred to as customary international law;

RECOGNIZING the progeny of the Universal Declaration, its long train of covenants, conventions and declarations as part of international human rights law, including, but not limited to: the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention on Civil and Political Rights; and the Convention Against Torture and others as they evolve, in accordance with principles of human dignity;

RECOGNIZING, therefore, the mandate to protect and enforce these rights in the promotion of human development for everyperson everywhere, without discrimination of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, nationality, social origin, birth, sexual orientation, medical conditions, disability or other status;

INVOKING the spirit of our time which calls upon the peoples of the world to rededicate themselves to the global task of promoting and protecting human rights and providing opportunities for freedom to do one’s duties to the world;

EMPHASIZING, therefore, that every right has a corresponding duty to the community and

DETERMINED to take new steps in a recommitment to sustained efforts to ensure cooperation and solidarity in the promotion of human rights,

The Town in concert with the Select Board and the Human Rights Commission for the Town of Amherst

RECOGNIZES that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all its progeny that have the status of treaty should be Law of the Land;

ACKNOWLEDGES that human rights principles are goals which we all aspire

URGES the progressive realization of the rights embedded in international human rights documents, in accordance with town resources and the will of the people;

REQUESTS the federal government to move towards further compliance with Article VI of the US Constitution, referred to as the Supremacy Clause, which declares all treaties as “law of the land” and the “judges bound thereby” and offers its assistance wherever practicable;

REQUESTS all executive, judicial, legislative, public and private bodies globally to also abide by human rights principles as the will of the people and global resources dictate;

ENDORSES the development of a human rights culture, which is a lived awareness of these rights and principles, and emphasizing once again the notion of corresponding duties so that rights for everyperson, everywhere can be guaranteed ;

COMMENDS all previous efforts of private, public, municipal, state, federal, and international bodies that have moved towards compliance with fundamental human rights principles

URGES such bodies to continually move toward implementation of international human rights law; and

REACHES out to the people of the world in a spirit of cooperation, certain that together we can create a just social and international order in the effective realization of human rights for all.

An earlier version was as follows:

THE AMHERST CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND DUTIES

WHEREAS continuing disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of humanity; and

WHEREAS the advent of a world, where humans can live with dignity and enjoy their civil and political rights, such as freedom of thought, speech, belief, and the press; economic, social and cultural rights, such as rights to employment, food, shelter, and health care; and solidarity rights, such as rights to peace, self-determination, development, a clean environment, and a just social and international order is the highest aspiration of humanity; and

ACKNOWLEDGING the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved in 1948 without dissent by the UN General Assembly, including the United States, and today increasingly referred to as customary international law;

RECOGNIZING the progeny of the Universal Declaration, its long train of covenants, conventions and declarations as part of international human rights law, including, but not limited to: the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention on Civil and Political Rights; and the Convention Against Torture and others as they evolve, in accordance with principles of human dignity;

RECOGNIZING, therefore, the mandate to protect and enforce these rights in the promotion of human development for everyperson everywhere, without discrimination of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, nationality, social origin, birth, sexual orientation, medical conditions, disability or other status;

INVOKING the spirit of our time which calls upon the peoples of the world to rededicate themselves to the global task of promoting and protecting human rights and providing opportunities for freedom to do one’s duties to the world;

EMPHASIZING, therefore, that every right has a corresponding duty to the community and

DETERMINED to take new steps in a recommitment to sustained efforts to ensure cooperation and solidarity in the promotion of human rights,

The Town in concert with the Select Board and the Human Rights Commission for the City of Amherst

DECLARES the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all its progeny that have the status of treaty according to the Supremacy Clause, Article VI of the Federal Constitution, as Law of the Land;

URGES the implementation of international human rights law, in accordance with the Will of the People and by all executive, legislative, judicial and other public and private bodies;

ENDORSES the development of a human rights culture, which is a lived awareness of these rights and principles, and emphasizing once again the notion of corresponding duties so that rights for everyperson, everywhere can be guaranteed ;

COMMENDS all previous efforts of private, public, municipal, state, federal, and international bodies that have moved towards compliance with fundamental human rights principles

URGES such bodies to continually move toward implementation of international human rights law; and

REACHES out to the people of the world in a spirit of cooperation, certain that together we can create a just social and international order in the effective realization of human rights for all.

You may wish to consider enacting similar measures in your municipality and/or state.... This is all an excellent way to get some good dialogue going, if not just to let others know about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that is, for instance, health care and security in old age, are as much human rights as the right not to be tortured or imprisoned for your beliefs, yet, also important rights to be safeguarded.

Please find below the final revision of what has become known as the Amherst Convention on Human Rights and Duties, which the Town of Amherst is considering to endorse as law:

The Amherst Convention on Human Rights and Duties

WHEREAS continuing disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of humanity; and

WHEREAS the advent of a world, where humans can live with dignity and enjoy their civil and political rights, such as freedom of thought, speech, belief, and the press; economic, social and cultural rights, such as rights to employment, food, shelter, and health care; and solidarity rights, such as rights to peace, self-determination, development, a clean environment, and a just social and international order is the highest aspiration of humanity; and

ACKNOWLEDGING the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved in 1948 without dissent by the UN General Assembly, including the United States, and today increasingly referred to as customary international law;

RECOGNIZING the progeny of the Universal Declaration, its long train of covenants, conventions and declarations as part of international human rights law, including, but not limited to: the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention on Civil and Political Rights; and the Convention Against Torture and others as they evolve, in accordance with principles of human dignity;

RECOGNIZING, therefore, the mandate to protect and enforce these rights in the promotion of human development for everyperson everywhere, without discrimination of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, nationality, social origin, birth, sexual orientation, medical conditions, disability or other status;

INVOKING the spirit of our time which calls upon the peoples of the world to rededicate themselves to the global task of promoting and protecting human rights and providing opportunities for freedom to do one’s duties to the world;

EMPHASIZING, therefore, that every right has a corresponding duty to the community and

DETERMINED to take new steps in a recommitment to sustained efforts to ensure cooperation and solidarity in the promotion of human rights,

The Town in concert with the Select Board and the Human Rights Commission for the Town of Amherst

RECOGNIZES that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all its progeny that have the status of treaty should be Law of the Land;

ACKNOWLEDGES that human rights principles are goals which we all aspire

URGES the progressive realization of the rights embedded in international human rights documents, in accordance with town resources and the will of the people;

REQUESTS the federal government to move towards further compliance with Article VI of the US Constitution, referred to as the Supremacy Clause, which declares all treaties as “law of the land” and the “judges bound thereby” and offers its assistance wherever practicable;

REQUESTS all executive, judicial, legislative, public and private bodies globally to also abide by human rights principles as the will of the people and global resources dictate;

ENDORSES the development of a human rights culture, which is a lived awareness of these rights and principles, and emphasizing once again the notion of corresponding duties so that rights for everyperson, everywhere can be guaranteed ;

COMMENDS all previous efforts of private, public, municipal, state, federal, and international bodies that have moved towards compliance with fundamental human rights principles

URGES such bodies to continually move toward implementation of international human rights law; and

REACHES out to the people of the world in a spirit of cooperation, certain that together we can create a just social and international order in the effective realization of human rights for all.