Colm on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In 1948, in a global effort to ensure that the inhumanity of the Second World War would never happen again, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was passed and adopted by the United Nations without a single dissenting voice. In his role as Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm recorded a series of radio columns to mark this important human rights anniversary.
60 years on, we celebrate the UDHR as the first comprehensive agreement among nations as to the specific rights and freedoms of all human beings. The UDHR recognises the inherent dignity and the inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Irish Section, in association with RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime programme, broadcast a series of radio columns, one dedicated to each article of the Declaration, to bring this historical and foundational document to life, demonstrating how central and relevant it is to our everyday lives.
16/5/08 – Introduction/Small Places
Eleanor Roosevelt once said that human rights begin in ‘small places’. In the first of a series of Drivetime radio columns celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Colm O’Gorman introduces the UDHR and explains how our human rights begin in the home, the school, the hospital and our local community.
23/5/08 – Article 3: Everyone has the right to life and the right to live in freedom and safety
Imagine a world where stopping to play with a can by the side of the road can cost you your legs and your cousin his life. Colm O’Gorman speaks about meeting Soraj, a 17-year-old survivor from Afghanistan who is playing a pivotal role fighting for an international treaty to ban the use of cluster bombs.
29/5/08 – Article 26: Everyone has the right to education and to free primary education
Our Constitution says that the state has a responsibility to provide for education. That is to provide for, but not to provide. After attending a local school fundraiser, Colm O’Gorman asks why we don’t demand that the state lives up to a higher responsibility and ensures that every child is entitled to, and receives, the highest possible standard of education.
6/6/08 – Article 29: Everyone has the responsibility to respect and uphold the rights of others in their community and the wider world
In this week’s column, Colm O’Gorman describes the scale of the abuse and misuse of aid by the government of Myanmar in the wake of the suffering caused to its own people by Cyclone Nargis and calls on the United Nations Security Council to press the military junta to cooperate so that desperately needed aid can get through.
20/6/08 – Article 16: Everyone has the right to marry and have a family
Over half of respondents in a recent poll believed that same sex couples should be allowed to marry in a registry office. As California joins the growing number of US states where same sex couples have the right to marry, Colm O’Gorman reasons that the same rights and responsibilities enjoyed by heterosexual partners should be extended to same sex partners.
27/6/08 – Article 5: Everyone has the right not to be hurt, tortured or treated cruelly
Colm O’Gorman invites us to imagine the horrifying existence of a 15-year-old boy who was kidnapped from his place of prayer and disappeared into seven years of detention and torture in Guantánamo at the hands of the most powerful state in the world, and then to ask how our government can refuse to investigate the use of Shannon Airport by the CIA.
4/7/08 – Article 21: Everyone has the right to vote in regular democratic elections and to take part in the government of their country
As Robert Mugabe continues to cling to power, Colm O’Gorman finds renewed faith in the democratic ideal from the defiance of many ordinary Zimbabwean citizens in the face of extreme violence and intimidation by government thugs.
14/7/08 – Article 19: Everyone has the right to say what they think and to share information with others
In the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake, Chinese authorities welcomed international assistance and allowed foreign journalists unprecedented access and freedoms. In this week’s column, Colm O’Gorman speaks about the false dawn for human rights in China and the activists who have been brutally punished for speaking out.
18/7/08 – Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property on their own or with others. No one should have their property taken from them without good cause
Colm O’Gorman assesses the Irish property market in the aftermath of the Celtic tiger and finds 260,000 houses sitting vacant while people sleep on the street or struggle in substandard accommodation, and asks whether the right to property and the principles of social justice can’t be reconciled.
25/7/09 – Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure time
As people all over Ireland are thinking about their summer holidays, the gloomy economic forecast may force us to rethink our priorities. Colm O’Gorman wonders if there isn’t a silver lining in adjusting our work/life balance and asks how the government can help families to spend more time together.
1/8/08 – Article 28: National and international laws and institutions must make possible the rights and freedoms set out in this declaration
Exactly 13 years after the Srebrenica massacre, in which 7,800 men and boys were murdered, the arrest of Radovan Karadzic leads Colm O’Gorman to reflect on truth, accountability and the possibility of a just international order.
8/8/08 – Article 1: Everyone is born free and has dignity because they are human
As the world marvels at the opening ceremony of the Beijing games, Colm O’Gorman argues that the Olympic ideals of cooperation, respect and human dignity are also at the core of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that the realisation of the Olympic vision includes the promotion of human rights.
15/8/08 – Article 18: Everyone has the right to their own free thoughts, conscience and religion including the right to practise their religion privately or in public
This year’s World Youth Day was marked by many young Catholics petitioning the Australian government for asylum. Colm O’Gorman notes that freedom of religion, which was denied to Irish Catholics for so long, has once again become an issue as we try to integrate new cultures into our society.
22/8/05 – Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude
The rate of emigration in this country was once so high that Eamon De Valera famously declared that Irish children would no longer be raised and exported like cattle. In this week’s column, Colm O’Gorman draws our attention to the continuing importation of vulnerable women into this country, like livestock, who are then forced into prostitution, and he asks why victim support and assistance has been omitted from long-overdue legislation.
12/09/08 – Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law.
Colm O’Gorman reminds us of the ideals set forth by people who fought and died in 1916 for Irish freedom as he questions the Irish government’s proposal to dismantle a mechanism that protects the rights of all.
19/09/08 – Article 9: No one shall be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Colm O’Gorman rebukes the Irish Government for its failure to ensure that Irish territory is not being used to assist in the illegal kidnap, detention and torture of boys and men through the process of extraordinary rendition by relying on discredited assurances from the US.
26/09/08 – Article 15: Everyone has a right to a nationality
On a trip to New York, Colm O’Gorman meets a man who lost his right to belong, to leave and return at will, to own and maintain a home in the land of his birth when Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.
03/10/08 – Article 23: Everyone has the right to work for a fair wage in a safe environment and also has the right to join a trade union.
“To be a trade unionist in Colombia is to walk with a gravestone on your back.” – Oscar, worker in a Coca-Cola bottling plant. This week, Colm O’Gorman finds himself impressed by the strength of character and sense of justice of trade union activists and discovers the notion of human rights that is embedded in their work.
On World Mental Health Day, Colm O’Gorman reflects upon how poorly we provide for the estimated 25 percent of us who experience mental health difficulties in Ireland.
27/10/08 – Article 25: Everyone has the right to a home, enough food and health care.
“Poverty is not natural, says Nelson Mandela, it is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings.” On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Colm O’Gorman examines poverty as a human rights abuse that is caused by and itself causes further human rights abuses.
31/10/08 – Article 8: Everyone has the right to ask for legal help when their basic rights are not respected.
Colm O’Gorman retells the story of Josie Airy, a Cork mother of four who appealed to the European Commission on Human Rights for a right to legal help. Josie’s case acted as a catalyst for the establishment of a system of civil legal aid in Ireland.
07/11/08 – Article 10: Everyone has the right to a fair trial, if accused of a crime.
Troy Davis was granted a provisional stay of execution on Friday 24 October, just three days before he was scheduled to be put to death. He has been on death row for 17 years for a crime he maintains he did not commit. Colm O’Gorman visits the facts of the case to argue for a fair trial for Troy Davis.
14/11/08 – Article 20: Everyone has the right to meet with others publicly and privately and to freely form and join peaceful associations
As the people of United States of America took charge to steer their country towards change, this week Colm O’Gorman asks whether Ireland can move towards this kind of visionary politics.
28/08/08 – Article 11: Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty if accused of a crime
A prisoner of conscience is one who has been denied a fair trial and imprisoned for expressing his/her beliefs in a peaceful manner. Colm O’Gorman introduces us to three prisoners of conscience and explains how the public can make a difference to their lives by sending them a greeting card this Christmas.
05/12/08- Article 27: Everyone has the right to take part in the cultural life of their community and the right to benefit from scientific and artistic learning
History has shown how economic hardship can bring out the worst in human beings. As Ireland deals with the new economic climate, Colm O’Gorman urges for a greater collective effort to work for a truly global recovery
