SALEM — In a world where human rights violations are spawning regular protests and rallies around the globe and on college campuses, at Salem State University Tuesday morning a roomful of educators, students, lawmakers, advocates and others observed and celebrated the 75th birthday of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
While it served as a celebration of human rights, those speaking in Viking Hall made frequent note that there’s more work to do. After all, Salem has made human rights protection a personal mission since the events of 1692.
“We can do something about this,” said Yvonne Vissing, director of Salem State’s Center for Childhood & Youth Studies, to open the two-hour event. “The name Salem alone is one leaning toward peace and justice. We want you to create a community infrastructure where we all work together — government, education, health, human services. We’re talking about all these ways we work together.”
The networking event — one connecting students with local support organizations and leaders to explore local human rights efforts — also spotlighted what’s coming: A name change for Viking Hall, led by SSU students to honor Charlotte Forten, the university’s first graduate of color.
“Our students are very engaged on our campus,” said SSU President John Keenan, noting a recent student protest supporting a ceasefire in Gaza that interrupted remarks from Gov. Maura Healey (bit.ly/3R7P4QG). “We advance the ball on social justice and human rights issues.”
The human rights declaration was proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948, three years after the end of World War II. The document, today translated into more than 500 languages, contains 30 articles that begin by stating “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” (bit.ly/3T2sqvj)
But human rights are “an empty vessel,” said Dan Eshet, program director at Salem State’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
“Nothing is in there. It’s only once people start creating human rights that it starts to fill up,” he said. “The outcome of that process is the concept itself.”
To understand the need for human rights, one must explore what makes humans unique, Eshet said.
“What defines humanity’s differences is we aren’t all the same. Our differentiation defines our identity as a species,” he said. “… What makes human culture and civilization is actually not the very turn of human civilization, but actually the contribution of many, many people of many, many nations of many, many cultures and races to fill this vessel of human civilization that we call human rights. There’s no white humanity. There’s no Black humanity. If you look at it from a universal point of view, it’s all of them together.”
And still, despite that, humans violate each other’s rights.
“When we talk about human rights, we talk about empowerment, dignity. That’s something all our residents — not just in Salem, not just across the commonwealth, but across the world — deserve to feel,” said Hannah Levine, a legislative aide for Salem state Rep. Manny Cruz. “Today, in 2023, not everyone feels that. Not everyone is able to feel empowered, to have dignity, because their human rights are infringed upon.”
And the United States itself still has work to do, state Sen. Joan Lovely said.
Lovely cited a second collection of 54 rights set forth by the United Nations: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the General Assembly on Nov. 20, 1989.
In 2023, the United States is the only member state in the United Nations to have not ratified it. Lovely and Vissing have filed a bill to make Massachusetts the first state to ratify.
“The United States… our United States… We’re trying to tackle this at a state level,” Lovely said. “Let’s make Massachusetts the first in the United States to adopt this.”
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.