The election results are in…but our work starts now.
The results are in and Theresa May will be returning to Downing Street. The comments made about ripping up ‘human right laws’ in the final few days of the election campaign show that we still have much work to do to safeguard our human rights.
At the start of the campaign we outlined five key human rights questions for you to ask your local candidates. We wanted to know if they would work with us to better support survivors of modern slavery, end the shameful practice of indefinite detention, work towards a society based on dignity and respect and stand up for our human rights laws. With your support we are ready to follow up and remake the case for human rights to our newly elected officials.
We would love you to join us. We need your support, your time and your energy to carry on ensuring a loud Jewish voice working for fairness, for dignity and for human rights.
Mia Hasenson-Gross
Director, René Cassin
Today, 10th December, is International Human Rights Day – the 76th anniversary of the signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The Declaration was a reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust. So, for Jews, today has a particuar significance.
Although rooted in response to atrocity, the Declaration was forward-looking and optimistic. It spoke for the majority of people who knew a better world was possible. The fact that it’s co-author , the French-Jewish lawyer Monsieur Rene Cassin, could draft such a hopeful document so soon after 26 members of his family were murdered by the Nazis is a testament to his humanity and the power of human rights in general.
Today, as the organisation that works in Cassin’s name, we are determined to ensure his Declaration’s vision of human rights for all is fully realised. Central to that work is a focus on so called ‘socio-economic rights’ – rights to everyday essentials like food, housing and health. This vision was best articulated in Article 25 of the Declaration:
‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’.
Bolstering these rights would ensure everybody has access to the foundations on which to build a dignified, prosperous and meaningful life. They have been neglected for too long.
