The mission of Unite for Rights is to unite people, nonprofits, businesses, and governments, to create an International Bill of Rights that is enforceable in the courts of all countries.
The logo above perfectly represents the mission of Unite for Rights: Linkage. At a time of international fragmentation and dystopian authoritarianism sweeping Earth, there is a deep-rooted desire within all four of the figures above (“Uniters”) to unite on a better path and create an agreement to live together, based upon fundamental rights for all with the rule of law to enforce them.
Unite is an international social movement based on nonviolence, but assertive of the power each of us has, individually and within nonprofits and businesses, to create the world we want for ourselves, as well as future generations – in all countries.
It was the intent of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that it would become an enforceable International Bill of Rights. That is why Article 28 in the UDHR, which was passed unanimously by all countries on December 10, 1948, anticipates that there will be future documents to make the UDHR enforceable.
The major problems of the world, the rise of athoritarianism, poverty, pandemics, discrimination, inequality for women, overpopulation, gross disparities of wealth, along with poor or unaffordable health care and a lack of education, are the result of the intent of Article 28 not being fully realized over the past 75 years.
The idea of an International Bill of Rights is not new. U.S. President Truman, at the closing ceremony for the United Nations Charter, in the War Memorial building in San Francisco, said: “The first thing we will do is prepare an International Bill of Rights” and he then added that the International Bill would be like the Bill of Rights in America – enforceable in courts. Eleanor and others set out to create that International Bill of Rights. Unite brings humanity together to continue down this path.
An international social movement is the core. At a time when breakthroughs are being made in the fields of physics and medicine through international cooperation, the same can be done through international cooperation in the field of law. The movement is for “enforceable human rights.” That is, rights become “juridical,” something to be presented to a Judge when they are violated, not just aspirational or something reported about in United Nations meetings. This means an attorney can stand in a courtroom in any country and ask a Judge to issue an Order enforcing the rights in the document, and if she issues that Order, it can can be reviewed by courts at the domestic, regional and, infrequently, at the international level.
The stories we tell create the lives we lead. Humanity needs a new “overstory”, to use the insight of the author Malcolm Gladwell. An overarching story that works for all of us on the planet, not just an elite few in one country or another. Unite’s story leads to well-being instead of war and want and to an international community, not where we are all the same, diversity florishes with freedom, but to an agreement to live together, with courts, not weapons, to resolve disputes when they arise.
Please join us to fulfill this mission by becoming a light on Unite’s spinning globe, and encourage others to join as well!
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