Today is International Human Rights Day 2015! To celebrate, we are continuing our blog series on #WhyRights matter – today we have a reflection from CWP Board Member Kate Mechan on why human rights are fundamental to changing the conversation about ending poverty in Canada.
#WhyRights?
Amazing things happen when we reframe human rights as intrinsic to our being.
While our human rights are enshrined in international law, there is something missing in the average dialogue about these rights. For those of us living below the poverty line, our human rights are held over us, externalized, and structured as unobtainable or as something we might earn over time if we choose to live a different way. The incongruity in this response to poverty is that it is so often our lack of choice that keeps us stuck in the first place. There is widespread evidence that our conversations aren’t going deep enough – our fundamental rights are still being violated.
In my years as an anti-poverty advocate and frontline worker with individuals marginalized through the complexities of their homelessness, I have heard decision-makers, public servants, the general public and elected officials state outright they don’t believe in human rights. Now to be clear, we’re not talking about something gifted to us. We’re talking about human rights that every individual is entitled to by virtue of their existence. When we frame human rights as something we can choose to believe in or not, we diminish individuals and we weaken communities.
Something shifted in me several years ago when I worked with a young woman who was more vulnerable to daily trauma than anyone I had ever met. The system in which she revolved and the manner in which her family and community had given up on her left me reeling. She was understandably resigned and beyond hurt. I can’t even remember how it came up in conversation one day but we started to talk about human rights. One conversation led to another and we weren’t just talking about human rights broadly, we were talking about her human rights. Her body language changed, the expression on her face shifted and there was no longer a tremble in her voice. Being given the language and tools to exercise our own rights is absolutely transformational. It was for this young woman and it was for me.
I envision a future where the onus is no longer put on human rights tribunals, activists, lawyers, anti-poverty activists and front line workers to be solely responsible to uphold human rights in our communities. What if each and every one of us took it upon ourselves to be more active in exercising our own rights and to ensuring that our neighbours’ rights were equally respected? What would happen if we actively taught our children from day one that they were born with rights and even more so, what these rights are specifically? What would happen if entire communities pulled together and would not back down until the rights of their most marginalized and vulnerable were honoured?
If our schools and community organizations, our government offices and health centers, our places of worship, our rec centers, and our homes become safer places to talk about our human rights we will start to see the impacts of deeper conversations. When we cease to talk about our rights as something we can either believe in or not we are freer to act with determination and the spirit with which our human rights were enshrined in law will be realized. We will facilitate more choice for those living in the margins. We will raise more confident kids, be more self-determined adults and live respectfully in more resilient communities.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU #WhyRights?
On Human Rights Day, we want to know why human rights matter to you in the pursuit to end poverty. Is there a particular benefit of a human rights approach that you think is important? Accountability? Effectiveness? Empowerment?
Share your opinion by tweeting your reason with the hashtag #WhyRights !
