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Renew your commitment to universal Human Rights this week

Posted by Gayle Gifford on December 7, 2009 in World News

Wednesday, December 10th, is International Human Rights Day. It commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the articulation of the inherent  rights of all people worldwide, by the members of the United Nations.

In honor of this occasion, it is worth repeating the first two Articles of the Universal Declaration.

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.”

Unfortunately, our world leaders are examples of the difference between what organizational theorists Chris Argyris and Donald A. Schön described as one’s espoused theory, or what we tell ourselves we believe, and our theory-in-use, or what we actually do.

While the leaders of the world say they believe in the principles of the Universal Declaration, unfortunately, they routinely violate those very principles.

In many organizations, our leaders may sincerely be unaware of how their theory-in-use differs from their espoused theory. In the case of human rights, however, it takes a pretty serious mental pretzle for a leader to believe that extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual assault and imprisonment without charge could possibly uphold the human rights principles set out in the Universal Declaration.

That’s why it is so important for each of us to hold governments worldwide accountable for bringing their practices into agreement with their expressed values.

So Jon and I spent yesterday afternoon writing appeals to governments around the world on behalf of 10 prisoners of conscience during  the annual Write-A-Thon for Human Rights. We were joined by over 50 community members, young and old, under the auspices of Group 49, the Providence Chapter of Amnesty International USA.

W are proud to say that AIUSA is one of our longest running memberships.

(By the way, for those nonprofit governance junkies out there, Amnesty International is a very interesting example of a multinational nonprofit that brings together professional staff and a worldwide movement of volunteers who also have a significant say in governing the organization.)

During the late 70s and early 80s, Jon and I were very active in the local chapter, serving as co-coordinators and participating in regional and annual meetings of AIUSA.  Jon served for a time as a member of the South Asia Coordination Group, a network of volunteers who acted as resources to US chapters w0rking on behalf of prisoners of conscience or other cases from that region. While the demands of a young and growing family caused our direct service to Group 49 to ebb, our commitment to human rights and our support for Amnesty International has never waivered.

To commemorate Human Rights Day, throughout this week we’ll be sharing the stories of the human rights workers who were highlighted in this year’s write-a-thon.

Please join us and consider how you might act to help protect human rights worldwide. For those of you already active in this area, you have our deepest appreciation.

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Celebrating a landmark decision, unfinished business and the next justice

Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 17, 2009 in Big ideas, Communicating, Nonprofit Highlights, World News

Today is the anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark, unanimous decision of the US Supreme Court in 1954. In this ruling, the Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, decided that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

The lawyer for the plaintiffs was Thurgood Marshall, who in 1975 was the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.  The cases that led to Brown v. were sponsored by the NAACP. (underscoring the critical role of advocacy and justice organizations in sparking systems change).

Sadly, we still have a largely segregated school system today. I witnessed this first hand.

My three children went to public schools in the city of Providence, RI. We live in the city and sent our kids to public schools because we believe that public education can be the great equalizer and because we want our kids to live in an inclusive society.

Out of three schools they attended, only their exam high school, Classical, came close to representing the fairly equally distributed racial and ethnic make-up of our dynamic city. The enrollment of students in the urban core are predominately children of color with large numbers of low income and first generation immigrant children who deserve more support than they are receiving.

Get outside the urban core and it’s much harder to find children of color. We’re not a lot different here than schools in many parts of the country.

I have seen first hand the struggles of schools trying to make do with few resources, too many kids per teacher, widely divergent student needs, uninspired leadership, too much bad or poor teaching and ever changing mandates. At times I’ve been jealous of the countless resources and one-on-one attention that our private school friends have attested to.

Yet I have to say, there is nothing more powerful than showing up at awards night at the high school and looking out on a stage filled with kids of every color and from every side of town. Than standing shoulder to shoulder with parents from many lands for whom the belief in the American dream where education is the path to a brighter future is a powerful to them as it was for me.

I’ve been fortunate to consult with charter schools (and some small independents that serve low income kids) that are trying to remodel urban education. But even they are faced by huge financial and educational struggles. Luckily we are seeing small, but bright experiments across the US. While it will be extremely costly to roll these models out across all schools across the US, it is too costly not to.

Even Senator John McCain has called access to quality education “THE civil rights issue of the 21st century.”

There is much work to be done. If we truly aspire to achieve what we profess, it will require our resolve as a society to not just talk a good game, but to put our money where our ideals are. There is no better investment in our future, whether that is in our health, our wealth or our quality of life, than an educated populace. All kids deserve high quality public education.

Which brings me to the Supreme Court. As we’ve witnessed over the many decades, the court has enormous power to bring forth a more just society, or to allow power to remain entrenched. Who is selected matters. A lot.  We hope President Obama chooses wisely.

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