"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood 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."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt speaking before the United Nations on March 27, 1953. Roosevelt was instrumental in the drafting the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document has since become the cornerstone of all international human rights law. Sixty-one years ago today, on December 10, 1948, U.N. members adopted the Declaration. As a result, we now celebrate this as Human Rights Day.
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