Making Rights Really Universal

Aww, all this Star Trek mania is making me nostalgic for the days when Amnesty International Group 22 tabled at the Star Trek convention in Pasadena. I wish I had pictures, but at least I still have my delegation badge! Remember when the Trekkies used to scarf up our cute little Universal Declaration of Human Rights booklets with the UN logo on them that kinda-sorta resembles the logo at left, thinking they had stumbled on some profound interplanetary document? But surely the United Federation would have a UDHR-derived bill of rights governing earthlings and aliens! For another flashback, try this Slate article, "Star Trek: The Next Generation's eerily prescient torture episode", which I recall we helped to promote (note that the article does mention an interplanetary version of the Geneva Convention.)

New Mexico Abolishes the Death Penalty

I thought Rights Readers should have some sort of equivalent to lighting up the Colosseum on the occasion of New Mexico abolishing the death penalty. How about this "Fire Up" slideshow from AI's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the UDHR?




Gov. Richardson's press release can be found here. His reasoning covers many standard abolition arguments and not surprisingly coming from the former diplomat includes this,

From an international human rights perspective, there is no reason the United States should be behind the rest of the world on this issue. Many of the countries that continue to support and use the death penalty are also the most repressive nations in the world. That’s not something to be proud of.

To track legislative progress in other states, bookmark this handy table from the Death Penalty Information Center. More on legislative maneuvers in the NYT article. And for lack of a better place to share, see this article for positive development on the federal level (also affecting California).

Happy 60th

Today is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To kick our celebration off here's a special animated video for the occasion:



If you're feeling nostalgic, here's the old Amnesty International 'running man' animation.

Not in a cartoon mood? This ACLU vid gives a nice capsule history of the UDHR beginning with footage of Eleanor Rooseve lt and presents its present day relevance to the civil rights movement.

Of course, we recommend Rights Readers selection, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Mary Ann Glendon, for the full story. Facing History brings us a Glendon video too.