60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights

Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, the main text that declares that every person deserves a life of dignity, respect, and the opportunity to pursue happiness, health, and a good quality of life free from prejudice and persecution.

The event was celebrated by thousands around the world.

If you want to read more about the events, check out the Amnesty International Web site.

Here's an interesting picture from the BBC:

 

A woman squeezes herself into a transparent suitcase to raise awareness of human trafficking and mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.


Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. 1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. 2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. 2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. 1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. 2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. 1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. 1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. 2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. 3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. 1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. 2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. 1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. 2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. 3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. 1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. 2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. 3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. 4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. 1. 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.
2. 2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. 1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. 2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. 3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. 1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. 1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. 2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. 3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Anorexia Videos

For the final videos, please click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS2mfWDryPE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKUSGOB-0V8&feature=channel

The Cholera Epidemic in Zimbabwe

For those of you who attended the AIDS banquet on Friday, I thought I would post a couple of articles to the cholera situation in Zimbabwe that Ms. Berk talked about.

As you might know, Zimbabwe has been experienced some serious unrest for the last twenty years or so. Robert Mugabe, the current president, is a corrupt dictatorial man who refuses to give up his position, despite the run-off elections against him earlier this year. In fact, during the elections, he rounded up people from the opposition, imprisoned them, had them beaten, and despite all of that, they still won. Not satisfied, he set himself back into that position, and refused to acknowledge the new cabinet. The United Nations has come out with a statement condemning his refusal to step down, but being who he is, he has been unaffected.


He has arguably single-handedly destroyed Zimbabwe's economy, health, and social cohesion, and drove the country into unprecedented chaos. He has violently opposed homosexuality, took land from the white minority, and advocated, for all intents and purposes, torture to his opponents.

The cholera crisis, however, is probably one of the worst events that the country has seen in recent years. Because of the severe poverty that has plagued Zimbabwe, the lack of access to clean and safe water, and lack of infrastructure, a disease outbreak can essentially bring the country to its knees. Which is exactly what happened a few months ago. Two of the main hospitals in Harare, the capital, closed because of lack of resources, along many of the local smaller clinics throughout the country.

Although cholera outbreaks are not new in many poverty-stricken areas, the toll it has taken on the country has been utterly devastating. In the last month, people have reported raw sewage running down the streets, the water sources have been shut off because the main sanitation company says it ran out of money for purification. Many highly populated areas of the capital have been without adequate water or sanitation for months now. To make matters worse, people who want to leave cannot access their money in the banks because of lack of cash currency, so they can't even leave their country or buy medicine.

The incoming rainy season has definitely made matters worse, as rain is washing the bacteria into shallow wells, where people dig for water, further spreading the contamination. Over 600 people have died so far, and many more are at risk. Dehydrated cholera victims are unable to receive adequate rehydration, especially when they leave hospitals. A doctor in Harare has said:

"To me nothing can explain this better, it's genocide, simple.

"Patients are dying needlessly; drugs are not there; prescription papers are hard to get, tubes for blood collection are difficult to come by; food for patients isn't available; surgical operations for patients have been stopped and doctors are only attending to emergencies.

“There are no more patients inside the wards, just empty beds.”

At the country's major referral hospital, Parirenyatwa, there are no more surgical operations.

"The two theatres have been closed, even the one for caesarean operations," he says.

"Everyone is being referred to private clinics, and if you don't have money, you die."(Source: BBC Online)

 Mugabe has asked for international aid to help deal with this crisis. However, because he has alienated the world over, leaders are refusing to help if he does not agree to step down.

The UNICEF is predicting a jump to over 60,000 cases in the upcoming months, due to Zimbabweans' already vulnerable health and immunity due to the high rates of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and other diseases in the country.

The UNICEF is also reporting that the outbreak has now spread to neighboring South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana. Unless this is brought under control, the situation will be deteriorating very rapidly, and might spread to the rest of the continent.







All images (c) the BBC 2008

You can learn more about Cholera at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera

Plastic Surgery Statistics

Your Hesse-Biber article refers to statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). If you are curious as to look at more recent data, you can visit the ASAPS Statistics page: http://www.surgery.org/press/statistics.php. It contains data from the last ten years.

America's Health Rankings 2008

A new report came out about health state rankings. As we saw the first week of classes, when compared to the rest of the country, the following observed trends tend to hold true:

1. Overall, health indicators are worse in the South than other regions of the country
2. Overall, New England seems to be the healthiest region with Vermont holding the highest ranking in the country in terms of health
3. Infant mortality in the United States, which seems to be holding at 6.8/100,000, is the highest in the industrialized world. When broken down by ethnic background, tends to be worst among Blacks (13.5) than Whites (5.7) or Hispanics (5.6) (Source: CDC Health Data for All Ages 2000-2004)
4. Obesity rates in the US are also the highest in the industrialized world
5. Comparatively, for all these indicators, non-Hispanic Blacks tend to compare worse than Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. In fact, in almost all measures, NHBs tend to have almost double whatever rates the other groups have. Talk about disparity!

The report has a clickable map of the US where you can view details of specific states. You can find the report here: America's Health Rankings 2008.

Infant Mortality Breakdown from the CDC:

Race/Ethnicity	All causes	Rate
All	685.7	6.9
White	572.7	5.7
Black	1351.4	13.5
American Indian/Alaska Native	860.5	8.6
Asian or Pacific Islander	475.5	4.8
Hispanic	560.3	5.6
Non-Hispanic	715.2	7.2
Non-Hispanic White	571.9	5.7
Non-Hispanic Black	1369.5	13.7

Mauritania video

Part I



Part II

Tyra Banks video