3/6/2025

What does it mean when we say something is a ‘human right’? I would like to help answer this question over the course of the next three weeks.

For many people working in the non-profit space, and working to serve communities, the current environment can be unsettling. Perhaps it will help to go back to our roots and review the principles agreed upon worldwide to guide our work and ensure people are treated with respect and dignity.

In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was established. If you want more information about this document, please go to the following website: Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations. This document represents a collective, common standard for all people and all nations to ensure fundamental human rights. 

This is a collection of thirty principles related to human rights that have been defined and accepted as the foundation for other treaties and bodies around the world. There may be discussions, arguments, and disagreements about how the general principles are interpreted but this document sets a standard related to dignity and worth, for how we should be treating our fellow human beings.

Over the next three weeks I will highlight ten of the thirty ‘Articles’. This week in summary define what people have a right to expect at the highest level to include being born free and equal, the lack of discrimination of any kind, security and safety, and no torture or degrading treatment. 

Here are the first 10:

Some questions to ask yourself as you review these principles around human rights include – Do we have a human right to health?  How do we balance a human right to health and the current health disparities?  Can we create a system that provide quality health services to all persons under a framework of human rights?  If people do not have access to quality healthcare have we treated them with dignity?  How and where does the justice system and the health system intersect?

Take a moment and imagine what we’d ask ourselves after receiving devastating health news. Will our health insurance cover this (if you have it)? Do we have a way to consistently get to our appointments? Do we have a safe place to live? Can we keep our homes if we miss work due to this? Will my friends and family be there for me?

For those we help, unfortunately those questions are met with extreme uncertainty. For this reason, PWA urges you to consider making a planned monthly donation to PWA. For as little as $30 a month, you can help heat a home in the winter and have A/C in the summer. For $50 a month you help children get a healthy breakfast each day. For $100 a month, you can help provide a housing deposit that allows a single parent to move into an apartment. 

In today’s challenging times, let’s come together to make sure that we can help as many as possible.