International Human Rights Day 2020
2020-12-10 12:00
Today marks the 72-year anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Ever since, human rights are celebrated each year on December 10 as part of the International Human Rights Day. This year’s theme is ’Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights’.
On December 10 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, marking 2020 as the 72nd anniversary of a global commitment towards the respect and upholding of human rights. In light of the challenging year that 2020 was, not only for human health, but also for human rights, the United Nations ask us today to “Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights”.
Consisting of 30 different articles, the Declaration mirrors itself in every one of the UN’s recent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), since without human rights there cannot be development and thriving communities.
At CESI, our work supports several articles in particular, notably numbers 22, 23, 24 and 25: It is our mission to ensure access to social security protection, decent working conditions, access to safe and healthy workplaces, equal pay for work of equal value, and work-life balance to every worker.
At CESI, we cannot help but noticing the peculiar coincidence of celebrating the UN’s remarkable achievement of humanity together with CESI’s own 30-year anniversary in 2020 and today’s Congress of CESI, where trade unions from across Europe come together (online!) to cooperate and learn from each other at supranational level. CESI is delighted to ever promote dialogue, international cooperation, peace, sustainable development and gender equality, and, generally and specifically, human rights.
At the fringe of CESI’s 8th ordinary Congress, Klaus Heeger, CESI Secretary-General, commented: “Since its inception, and of course still today, CESI has put the value and principles of human rights at the core of its work. This has been very clear to us especially during this extraordinary year 2020 where it is evident that there cannot be progress, development, and sustainable recovery from a global pandemic while leaving those most vulnerable behind. And so we voice the same words as the United Nations: ‘Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights’. And if I may be so bold to add: ‘Now more then ever’”.
