Celebrating International Human Rights Day with UNA Pasadena

On Saturday, four Global Scholars and I convened on the Poly Upper School Library for an assembly featuring the illustrious Ryan Kaminski, the Senior Program Director for Human Rights at the United Nations Association. The UNA is a global non-profit organization created as an auxiliary to the United Nations in order to facilitate grassroots community involvement and diverse perspectives in places not in close proximity to official UN meeting places (almost all of the world).

Saturday was the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, published by the UN at its third meeting in 1948 and voted through by 48 of its then 58 members. The UDHS lays out a fairly concise list of 30 articles detailing the essential rights that all people of the Earth are entitled to, from equal protection under the law to health and education. The document was revolutionary for its time—a reaction to the global atrocities perpetrated during WWII—yet it remains entirely relevant to this day and holds up as one of the most influential legal codes in world history.

After Ryan's presentation on human rights, the five of us had the opportunity to mingle with Public Health major who had come from Cal State Dominguez Hills to attend the presentation and members of the Pasadena branch of the UNA. In the end we made origami lotuses, which can grow from the harshest conditions to sprout beautiful flowers, in order to celebrate the importance of fundamental human rights and the tremendous opportunities that protecting them provides for all humans to blossom.