Submitted by Marvin Miller

On the anniversaries of the adoption of the U.S. Bill of Rights, Dec. 15 1791, and of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Dec. 10 1948, everyone, especially humanists, should think about human rights and the degree of respect for them in our country and in the world. Have these improved or deteriorated recently?

Recently, the pervasive presence of video camer has made it possible to document abuse of the most basic of human rights — the right to life itself. Abuse targeting African-Americans, both by people of authority and by those of self-appointed authority, gave rise to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Leaks of information by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden have revealed US government actions in violation of rights granted by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution to keep our private communications private. These same leaks further reveal violations of the rights of citizens outside the US, as declared in Article 3 of the UN Declaration, which states that “…everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.”

Cruel and unusual punishment is forbidden by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but executions, which are certainly cruel, continue although they are, fortunately, unusual.

Freedom of the press is supposed to be protected by the First Amendment, but journalists have been harassed for refusing to reveal their confidential sources, lest those sources be subjected to harsh treatment.

Immigrants are being imprisoned without trials for entering the US without government permission, or having come with such permission, for staying longer than their visas allowed.

Article 14 of the UN Declaration states: “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” But in many countries, including our own, people are being treated harshly for doing so.

Article 25 of the UN Declaration states: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services, with the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” The extent to which realization of these rights is advancing or deteriorating can be judged by the current headlines. In our country, modest advances in rights pertaining to access to medical care were achieved a few years ago, but rising costs and Congressional actions are eroding that achievement. The rise in the cost of housing, faster than that of incomes, erodes access to affordable housing. In other countries, austerity, and especially war, deprive people of their economic rights, and indeed of all rights.

In society, as in nature, change is a response to forces. When the forces of the “Haves”, those with military, police, political, and economic power, are dominant, the people’s rights tend to be eroded. When the forces of the “Have-nots” predominate, the people’s rights tend to advance. These are the forces that need and deserve the support of those of us who want to see the advance of human rights.