Celebrating International Human Rights Day: What the West Needs to Know

Thursday, December 16, 2010 – Cannon Building – Independence Avenue and 1st Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 – Room 402 – Human Rights in the Middle East

Every person on the planet is entitled to human rights. The concept of human rights developed after World War II in response to the Holocaust. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The concept of rights is not new and existed in pre-modern cultures in ancient Greek and Roman times where we find various indicators of rights, although not as a universal issue.

In Europe, during the Renaissance, we find the Twelve Articles which are considered the first record concerning human rights. In the 18^{th fundamental civil rights and civil freedoms included in the Virginia Declaration of Rights.}

Today the world still struggles with human rights. While the majority of Westerners acknowledges human rights and fights to defend them, the majority of the Middle East (except the State of Israel) denies these rights. Western governments and NGOs have great concern over human rights abuses in the Middle East resulting in politically correct reports and soft condemnation.

In preparing this conference we bring together scholars, authors, activists, organizers, and journalists concentrating in the area of human rights and hope to offer a perspective which demands a much firmer approach by the U.S. and other Western governments to the issues.

At this point we have not taken the real actions necessary to effectively defend human rights around the world. It is unacceptable that we continue to overlook human rights violations. This is the time to act!