The drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights specified thirty articles: rights and freedoms essential for the achievement of dignified living for all people. These rights include civil, political, social and economic liberties. The declaration represents the belief that persons can only flourish if there rights and freedoms are respected. The drafters assumed that signers not only believed conceptually in the idea of inherent human dignity, but also accepted the personal obligations that go hand in hand with peaceful development.
We have been challenged these past 16 days to consider the right of women and girls to be free from the experience of violence. This year’s emphasis focused us on the experience of girls and education. It has been well documented that a violence-free education for girls results in stronger and more resilient communities.
We know that strong girls are necessity to the thriving of vulnerable communities. At the same time we know that a violence free education for girls does not ‘just happen’. Our work during this 16 days has been to mobilize our thoughts, prayers and actions toward a new world for our precious girl children.
We hope that you will consider ways that you might be involved in seeing that the 62 million girls without education in our world today have a safe violence-free means to go back to school. We hope that you will share the insights and information in these posts with other people within your reach. We must continue to foster a culture of prevention and awareness about violence, girls, and their education.
Thank you for joining with us on these 16 days, we hope you are inspired and moved to action on this Human Rights Day and every day.