No Justice, No Peace

On the Occasion of International Human Rights Day of 2022

NAFCM- Dec 28th 2022

By Elahe Amani

The Human Rights Day of 2022 is a historic day for many reasons, including but not limited to the 74th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). At three o’clock in the morning on December 10th, 1948, after nearly two years of drafting and one last long night of debate, the president of the UN General Assembly called for a vote on the final text. Forty-eight nations voted in favor; eight abstained; none dissented. And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.

The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) will be celebrated on December 10th, 2023. Ahead of this milestone celebration so, starting on this year’s Human Rights Day on December 10th, 2022, UN Human Rights Council launched a year-long campaign to showcase the UDHR by focusing on its legacy, relevance, and activism.

In the 74 years since the declaration was adopted, many nations have made significant progress in making human rights a human reality. The progress was not easily won. People here in the US and globally fought, organized, and campaigned in public squares and private spaces to change not only the discriminatory and racist laws but the hearts and minds of those in the position of power. The barriers that once prevented people from enjoying the full measure of liberty, the full experience of dignity, and the full benefits of humanity have fallen away. Thanks to that struggle of generations, millions of individuals whose lives were once narrowed by injustice are now able to live more freely and participate more fully in their communities political, economic, and social lives. So while we have come a long way, a longer path is ahead of us.

That is the notion behind This year’s Human Rights Day slogan, “Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All,” and the call to action is #StandUp4HumanRights.

The use of the word justice for all in this year campaign of HRC and the call to action of #StandUp4HumanRights derives from the growing concerns over the divide, polarization, and the rise of extremism in politics and identity locally, nationally and globally.

As conflict resolution, peace, and mediation practitioners, we know that the relationship between human rights advocacy and conflict resolution/mediation and peacebuilding has been debated for years, particularly in international civil conflicts. The two fields are typically framed as a dichotomy, in which human rights activists promote justice, narrowly defined as the prosecution of human rights abuses, while conflict resolution practitioners seek peace, narrowly defined as the absence of violence.

Bringing it from global to local, in what ways we, the community mediators, can bring the Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All to our community and stand up for Human Rights. The fact is that the social change that human rights advocates and conflict resolution practitioners aim to bring about is very similar.

The UDHR 30 articles that set out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all of us, everywhere around the world are entitled, is embedded in the spirit of civil rights of the United State and guarantees our rights without distinction of nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, religion, language, or any other status. Civil rights protect against discrimination, injustice, and inequality and are embraced by the philosophy of community mediation centers and NAFCM. Indeed, No Justice, No Peace!