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Sihem Bensedrine: My Life as a Defender of Human Rights >

WHO'S GOT RIGHTS?

Everyone has human rights – those fundamental freedoms that are essential to living a full life. Regardless of your sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, economic status or sexual orientation, human rights belong to YOU.

Defenders of these rights in communities around the world passionately work to uphold the neglected, victimized and ignored. They are "living answers" to some difficult, and often controversial, questions:

Saad Ibrahim Can democracy activists succeed in the heart of the Middle East?

Saad Ibrahim has struggled for more than 30 years toward this goal, even at the expense of his own freedom and health. [Read more]

Read a critique of U.S. policy, which may be making the job of human rights and democracy activists even harder >>

Zainah Anwar Do women have equal status as men in Islam?
Zainah Anwar's example makes the case. The founder of Sisters in Islam, Anwar uses the teachings of the Qur'an to advocate for women's rights. [Read more]

Do members of a government's political opposition deserve equal rights?
Gerard Jean-Juste thinks so. This political exile living in Miami is on a lifelong quest to improve the civil liberties of Haitians, regardless of their views. [Read more]

Jessica Montell Do Palestinians have the right to move freely on their own land?

Jessica Montell, an Israeli, insists they do. Holding her own government accountable, Montell brings rights violations to light, exposing the true situation in the Occupied Territories. [Read more]

Helen Mack Do members of emerging democracies deserve to live free from fear?

Helen Mack asserts that all people have a right to security. She challenges the Guatemalan culture of impunity for military crimes that subverted justice after the murder of her sister. [Read more]

Sihem Bensendrine Do journalists have the right to expose government corruption and torture?

Sihem Bensedrine believes journalists not only have the right but the moral obligation. She decries the Tunisian government's authoritarian restrictions on expression and association, despite its benign reputation in the eyes of the West. [Read more]

Check out the full list of YOUR human rights:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Adopted and Proclaimed by the United Nations on
10 December 1948 (PDF) >>

Feb. 16, 2010: U.S. Engagement With the U.N. Human Rights System >>

As the men and women on this page can tell you, human rights don't stand up for themselves. Guaranteeing that everyone gets the basic freedoms he or she deserves requires courage, persistence, vigilance – and a broad community of allies.

Be a defender in your community. You have the potential to promote basic human rights by raising awareness and encouraging your peers to take action against injustice. Check out the links below to learn more:

When raising awareness about human rights, be sure to check out your ideas with local human rights defenders, as outside pressure can sometimes backfire.

For example, well-intentioned activists throughout the world organized a campaign in 2002 to support Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock. Her Nigerian lawyers appealed to women's advocacy groups abroad to stop the flow of letters because they feared the courts would rule against Lawal just to prove they would not succumb to international pressure. Fortunately, her lawyers prevailed and she was acquitted.

For a current example of the fragile relationship between frontline defenders and foreign advocacy groups. [Read more].

You can usually find contact information for local human rights organizations with a good Web search.