movements for human rights

Movements for human rights
(Coordinator Comment)

The movement for human rights is an excellent precedent for the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace because it too is based on a normative document of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted by the General Assembly in 1948.

We may assume that the increased attention to human rights is due largely to the efforts of civil society organizations such as Amnesty International. Amnesty, which won the Nobel Peace Prize (1977), as described in World Peace through the Town Hall.

Now almost 60 years after its adoption, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been taken up by thousands of other organizations and struggles in all of the other social movements mentioned here as a powerful tool for justice. Hopefully, we will not have to wait so long for such effective use of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.

It can be said that the most powerful movement for human rights over the past few centuries has been the trade union movement. Trade unions have fought consistently for such key rights as "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, old age or lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." (Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), as well as the right to work, free choice of employment, and just and favorable conditions of work and protection against unemployment (Article 23) and the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitations of working hours and periodic holidays with pay (Article 24).