Anyone who reads my blog might be wondering about how to catergorise it. At first glance, it is concerned with a personal journey through grieving, but I also indicate my research interests in political theory and have one or two posts of a political nature. I make no apology for this - I am of the Aristotelian persuasion that 'man (and woman and child) is a political animal', and I agree with Hannah Arendt on the importance of political action for living a fully human life. For me, politics, in the broadest sense of well-being and human flourishing rather than simply maximisation of self-interests, is about every day living. My children's education, the home we enjoy, our relations with others, even the tragedy of sudden death, touches the political at every turn. Therefore discussions about human rights, whilst also talking about how to run a home or research a project, are essential.
Eleanor Roosevelt said of the UDHR, 'Where after all, do human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world'
Human rights do not belong to governments, international insitutions or even NGOs. They belong to us - ordinary people engaged in the ordinary activities of living and dying. We should reclaim both the duty and the public pleasure of talking about them because by doing so, we extend our capabilities for sympathy with the suffering of others, coming to realise that they suffer because they are human in exactly the same way that we, ourselves, are human.
Eleanor Roosevelt said of the UDHR, 'Where after all, do human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world'
Human rights do not belong to governments, international insitutions or even NGOs. They belong to us - ordinary people engaged in the ordinary activities of living and dying. We should reclaim both the duty and the public pleasure of talking about them because by doing so, we extend our capabilities for sympathy with the suffering of others, coming to realise that they suffer because they are human in exactly the same way that we, ourselves, are human.
No comments:
Post a Comment