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Toward the Creation of a Human Rights Culture: The
Key for a Socially Just World
The purpose of this website is to suggest social actions for the educated layperson
to create a socially just world constructed from the pillars of human rights. Ultimately, the aim of these social actions
is to create a human rights culture among people throughout the world so that everyperson, everywhere can have their rights
guaranteed. In brief, a human
rights culture is a "lived awareness" of human rights principles in one's mind and heart, dragged into one's everyday
life. Principles of such documents, therefore, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must not be known merely cognitively,
that is, in the "head," but also on the feeling level, the "lived" level of the heart. It is not good
enough for society to only "know," for example, that health care, shelter, and security in old age, for example,
are human rights, as enunciated in the Universal Declaration, it is important for a society to act upon this knowledge in
ways that can implement these rights for every person, everywhere. But the journey from the mind to the heart, is a
long one, longer still to drag this lived knowledge into our everyday lives. This website provides social action strategies
that ought to be useful for the educated layperson as she or he embarks upon this journey. In reviewing these pages,
please keep in mind that Eleanor Roosevelt, Chairperson of the Drafting Committee for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
wanted a document that was for the educated layperson, not the doctorate in jurisprudence. Similarly, one needn't have
a doctorate, a master's, a bachelor's degree or esoteric certificate/speciality in the helping or health professions. One
must simply have the desire to learn and to do. Passion and commitment also helps.
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Preliminary Comments To be sure, information is power. In this Second World Decade of Human Rights Education there is a global push to have
educational institutions from the elementary to graduate and professional schools to teach solely about human rights principles
and/or incorporate these principles in their curricula. Eleanor Roosevelt did, indeed, want all grammar school children
to know about all their rights, specifically as asserted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, a major challenge
for all social justice/human rights advocates is simply to teach others about human rights. Issues are complicated, however, as e very
right does have a corresponding duty, according to the Universal Declaration, such that it can easily be said that what we
are talking about is a culture of human duties. Thus, the right to health care requires the duty for each of us to keep healthy,
eat correct foods or exercise, for instance. Yet, we must remember that it is the duty of government to create a "social
and international order" as stated also in the Universal Declaration so that food is nutritious, accessible, culturally
relevant at an affordable cost and that our towns and cities have ample enough opportunities for us to develop not only in
body, but, mind and heart as well.
Such a culture will necessitate a "lived awareness" of the interdependency and indivisibility of rights. In
other words, roughly, as organs of the human body function interdependently, so, too, do human rights. In brief, the right
to health care, as a case in point, is dependent upon such rights as education (our health personnel must be educated); employment
(they must receive a meaningful wage); and rest and leisure (they must have ample time to rest). What further complicates
matters is also what has become known as "cultural relativism." Thus, some cultures might believe that it is appropriate for a couple to be betrothed, rather than
"choosing" each other, choice of spouse considered a human right according to the Universal Declaration. While we
may also have a "knee jerk" response to condemn such cultures that engage in practices like female genital mutilation
(FGM), we must recall the ancient injunction to examine the log in one's eye before plucking it from another's. Thus, some
cultures condemning practices such as that may be rampant with deaths from anorexia nervosa or they may be stockpiling weapons
of mass destruction, threatening the basic human right to peace.
Creating a human rights culture, then, is a kind of paradox. On the one hand, we have the standards set out in major human
rights documents drafted by the United Nations and to some extent regional organizations like the African Union, the Organization
of American States, and the European Union. On the other hand, we must recognize, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Chairperson of the
Drafting Committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, who said of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that
it was a "good document... not a perfect one," and that human rights discussions cannot take place in philosophic-historical
vacuum. Perhaps, it is our questioning together, acknowledging the importance of incorporating the voices of the oppressed
in the policy debates, or what the philosopher Merleau Ponty has called the "happiness of reflecting together,”
that may help us bring about such a culture where we treat one another with decency and human dignity.
Only chosen values endure and perhaps, it is our questioning together, or the "happiness of reflecting together"
that may help us begin to tackle such issues with humility.But, be careful: As Eleanor Roosevelt said often "Hell is
paved with good intentions". Perhaps that was more eloquently stated by former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
who said:"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding".
Ultimately, what we need to do is to engage in constant dialogue with those we are trying to "help," so that
we work "with" others, not "for" others.
Joseph Wronka's latest book is Human Rights
and Social Justice: Social Action and Service for the Helping and Health Professions (Sage, 2008). (Human
Rights and Social Justice) In brief, this book examines how human
rights and social justice can serve as a conceptual framework for social policy and practice among the helping and health
professions, broadly defined to include social work, psychology, psychiatry, psychiatry, medicine, nursing, and public health,
which have recognized the importance of human rights principles. The International Federation of Social Work, for example,
asserts that from its conception social work has been a human rights profession; the American Public Health Association encourages
schools in the health professions to make human rights a fundamental component of their curriculum. Joseph Wronka takes an
interdisciplinary, humanistic, phenomenological, and educated layperson's approach arguing for a human rights culture, that
is, a "lived awareness of human rights principles in one's mind, heart, and body, carried into one's everyday life.
Email: Joseph
WronkaWork Telephone:
413-748-3067 Fax:
413-748-3069 Address:
School of Social Work, Springfield College, 263 Alden Street, Springfield, MA 01109 USA
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