Lenten Reflection: Saturday in the Third Week of Lent

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the United Nations Commission of Human Rights.

This speech was given in 1958, on the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, which enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings.

What small thing can you do today to uphold the universal human rights of men, women, and children?