I Blog Poetry and Prose

United Nations Human Rights Day

Istijlal (Majesty), 19 Qawl (Speech) 177 B.E. - Thursday, December 10, 2020

Today we celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  , which was released by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was released in the twentieth century, it was in the mid-nineteenth century that Baha'u'llah, the prophet founder of the Baha'i Faith, established human rights as God given rights. In 1912, 'Abdu'l-Baha, the son of Baha'u'llah, gave a talk in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in which he spoke about ten teaching of Baha'u'llah. One of those teaching was an "equal standard of human rights".

"Baha’u’llah taught that an equal standard of human rights must be recognized and adopted. In the estimation of God all men are equal; there is no distinction or preferment for any soul in the dominion of His justice and equity."

'Abdu'l-Baha12

God has given humanity these rights, and it doesn't matter what cultural, religious, political, national, or any other human created designation we claim for ourselves. This is the twenty-first century, the time has come for us--the people of Earth-to practice these rights in our collective and personal lives.

Footnotes
1  The Promulgation of Universal Peace, 9 June 1912, Talk at Baptist Temple, Broad and Berks Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pages 177-183, https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/PUP/pup-63.html.
2  Quoted in Human Rights Day: Marking One Step Toward a Unified World by David Langness https://bahaiteachings.org/human-rights-day-marking-one-step-toward-unified-worl...