Excerpts from 'A journey to finding me' Eps 17

what does Human rights Mean to me (Meaning of life) Meaningful experiences in research and writing. Describe “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ” —Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Human rights means that people all over the world should be treated with respect and dignity where everyone is held in the same esteem as another person no matter their gender or race, as long as they are human, there are rights that they have and can contest against if these rights are not permitted them. It becomes complex thinking about the wide variety of cultures, and traditions and concepts of respect that cultures have and what is standard in one place may never be standard in another culture. For instance in the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda there are certain expectations on women such as kneeling when greeting and serving anyone older than them, this may be seen as a violation of human rights by another culture. Therefore if human rights have to hold any meaning they should transcend minimal aspects of society and address core concerns such as right to life, freedom to participate in their cultures, right to be treated with respect and dignity. In some places it has become the right to education, food and work. One basic human right can be expressed in the concept of life, where if one’s life is at danger by another human being or situation, that life is being violated. As a human rights researcher and writer I will be adept to the Universal declaration of human rights but not as rigid to follow it without understanding concepts of the situation that I will be researching and writing about. Human rights are largely a good thing and are working right now in bringing a semblance of peace in some areas of the world. People are becoming aware that their lives do mean something and voices of the subaltern are being raised in areas where human dignity is not upheld. A good example can be the Rwandan genocide where lives were dehumanized to the point of equating them with insects. Today Rwandans are embracing concepts of human rights, understanding human dignity and using this to bring them social progress.