Human Rights in Action: Introduction

Despite its frequent usage in everyday discourse, the concept and application(s) of human rights can be quite elusive. It is typically assumed that human rights are a set of objective rights that are endowed to every person regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and citizenship status. Human rights are also believed to be established and protected by the United Nations—another seemingly objective organization. In this podcast series, I sought to a) critique the imagined universality of human rights by contextualizing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and b) provide tangible applications of human rights by interviewing three significant contributors to this field. Each interview covers a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, international structures that keep Haiti poor (Ep: 1 Brian Concannon Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti), the importance of community based approaches in supporting survivors of sexual violence both domestically and internationally (Ep: 2 Payal Shah '03 Physicians for Human Rights) and a buddhist’s approach to international human rights advocacy (Ep: 3 Nicole Phillips Haitian Bridge Alliance), 

 

This episode was written and produced by Destiny Rosulmé