Interesting Facts

19th December 1948 - The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to a UN spokeswoman on violence against women. Rashida Manjoo, the UK is the most sexist country in the world. (Rashida Manjoo, a human rights expert from South Africa, says that there is a "boys’ club" sexist culture in the UK. In that respect, she is correct. The old boys network is alive and well in the UK, and they do know how to look after each other, so maybe we need an old girls network too.  Something she neglects to notice is that most guys don't get to join the old boys network either.)

At 16, Britain has the lowest recruitment age in Europe for young people wishing to join the army. (They do need their parent or guardian's permission, and they are not sent to any war zones.  But, human rights groups have worked out that with longer training, and a higher drop out rate, recruiting at such a young age wastes up to £94m a year.  It costs an "estimated" £88,985 to recruit, train and pay new soldiers aged 16 and 17, compared with £42,818 for each adult recruit. It might be nicer if they just pointed out that 16 year olds can't even vote as they're not considered mature enough. )

Two Belarus generals have been sacked after two Swedish people,  Tomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey,  piloted a light plane into the country's heavily guarded airspace, and dropped 879 teddy bears "bearing" slogans supporting human rights across the country. (The Swedish pair carried out the stunt in support of  Belarusian activists, who have at times arranged plush toys in such a way that they appeared to be protesting the regime, said to be the last dictatorship in Europe ( Lukashenko has run Belarus, since 1994) .  Oh, and d on't worry - no teddy bears were hurt as they were all decked out in parachutes.  Super Ted would be proud of them - Teddy Power!) Unfortunately it's not all fun - a uthorities in Belarus have arrested a journalism student who posted teddy bear photos on his personal website and a real estate agent who offered an apartment to the Swedes. The two men stand accused of assisting border violators and face up to seven years in prison if convic...

An evangelical Christian family with five children were granted asylum in Tennessee this week after a judge ruled that their fundamental human rights were being violated back home. (What makes this interesting is that "back home" was in Germany. The reason that the Romeike family applied for asylum is that they were unable to homeschool their children, as school attendance in Germany is mandatory. A US immigration judge said that Germany was violating their basic human rights. I'd like to know how the children feel.)

The Cyrus Cylinder, a 2,500-year-old clay cylinder covered with cuneiform lettering is thought to be the world's first declaration of human rights. (The cylinder is from Persia, now known as Iran, and was ordered by the Persian king Cyrus following the conquest of Babylon. In Babylonian.  It states how every man, woman and child should be free to practise their culture and religion.)

Human rights groups estimate that up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. (In a series of systematic abductions, men women and children were methodically tortured and murdered. The disappeared have not been heard of to this day. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which came into force on 1 July 2002, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population, a "forced disappearance" qualifies as a crime against humanity, and thus is not subject to a statute of limitation.) >

According to the Guinness Book of Records The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the "Most Translated Document" in the world. (It consists of 30 articles which outline the view of the General Assembly on the human rights guaranteed to all people.)