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December 3rd, 2023
This December 10th marks the 75th anniversary since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The concept of human rights is radical and relatively new. The term did not come into wide use until the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. Historically, the rights a personal possessed where tagged to qualifications related to sex, gender, ethnicity, religion and social standing. With the human rights idea, all those qualifiers were swept away. The human rights idea asserts that all people, without exception, possess certain fundamental rights issuing from their humanity alone. Since the end of the Cold War, and the fading of socialism as an ideology, human rights has done the heavy lifting world-wide of people who have struggled against their oppression and injustice.
In the decades after World War II, human rights has widened the circles of equality to include, women, minorities, LGBT people, the disabled and other marginalized groups. At the same time, human rights faces many challenges, both conceptually and in terms of implementation. While codified into international law by a growing family of more than 100 treaties, human rights remain primarily aspirational. Their realization ultimately resides in the will of nations and their people to proclaim, uphold and enforce them.
Dr. Joe Chuman is an Ethical Culture leader, activist, educator, and writer.
He has been a part-time leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture since 2008. He retired two year ago after serving for 46 years as the leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County New Jersey. Joe has two masters degrees and doctorate in the philosophy of religion from Columbia University. He taught courses in Human Rights in the Graduate School of Arts and Science of Columbia University for 20 years, and Human Rights for almost as long at Hunter College. He has also taught Human Rights on five occasions at the United Nations University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Joe has written scores of articles for newspapers, journals of opinions, encyclopedias as well as many book chapters. His text “Speaking of Ethics” is a series of essays based on Ethical Culture platform addresses. For the past two years, Joe has written more than 80 extensive essays on Substack on current political, social and philosophical issues. His articles have been reproduced in magazines, and used in schools.
As an activist, Joe has worked in the fields of human rights, civil liberties, community relations and more. He is the founder of the Northern New Jersey Sanctuary Coalition, a non-profit organization that provides a comprehensive range of humanitarian services, including housing, for asylum seekers.