My name is Naya Zerez, I’m from Aleppo, I came to Lebanon in order to pursue my studies in architecture at USEK, since we have a bad political situation in our beloved Syria, or, if I may call it “war”.
I’m here to raise few questions about human rights…
The United Nations’ general assembly was formed after the devastation of World War 2, on December 10, 1948, and it adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This declaration incarnated an international desire for “peace” and the proliferation of fundamental human values. When I started reading the list of ‘human rights’, the following shocked me:
- 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.
- Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
- No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
And that was my first reaction: “Really?” Do freedom, equality, dignity, brotherhood, liberty, security, etc. truly exist in our world?
Yes they do, but also unfortunately, and in most cases, they don’t.
From what I’ve seen back in my country, and what I see every day on TV, I know that freedom is a rare thing to find, and slavery is the most common practice (i.e. crime) in our today’s world, so is the lack of security, and last but not least, the devaluation of LIFE.
In Syria, and other countries, it is common to notice the transformation of individuals into monsters. Also, so many civilians die every day but they only become numbers, anonymous, barely noticed. Human rights are vanishing and it seems at first that nothing can be done to stop hell on earth!
However, we can’t lose hope…
As I see it, I will fight with all possible means against violence, slavery, hunger,… With my voice, my pen, my ideas, multimedia platforms… The most powerful peaceful “weapons” of our time.
If every one of us uses one of those weapons to serve humanity, human beings might get back or will finally be on the right track, even in Syria and in other places where wars occur.
It is not enough to read and sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights… It is not enough to have laws… Change happens in every individual first, and in different communities, in our daily life, and laws must be applied. Or else, we will still be trapped in never-ending cycles of violence.
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Bibliography:
http://www.facinghistory.org/resources/collections/udhr?_kk=declaration%20on%20human%20rights&_kt=86bf3116-075a-46c1-ae25-5f069677452d&gclid=CMvBnLOHv7oCFQ4Q3godlXEAeQ
http://www.un.org/en/rights/
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#atop
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/InternationalLaw.aspx