In the last chapter of WYA’s Certified Training Program (CTP), the readings talk about the importance of human rights and its ties to human dignity. Within the main points of these topics, it expresses how different we all are. We come from different cultures, backgrounds, and socioeconomic contexts. Regardless of this, we all came to an agreement of what everyone should respect because of its universality. We talk about how a lot of things are subjective but human rights and human dignity are objective and undebatable. There is a fine line that divides what is subjective and what is objective, and this is exactly what it is. Human rights are specifically what allows subjectivity. It is what allows us to be who we are because it is based on respect and equality.
Subjectivity and human differences are what allows us to be ourselves and because of this, we can’t agree on why these rules are established but we can agree that they are needed, inalienable and inviolable. We all want different things but when it comes to human rights, equality, and respect, we all want the same thing – to acknowledge our shared dignity.
We live in a holistic world where everyone is affected either directly or indirectly by everything. This being said, in order to get what we want, we have to start with ourselves because that’s where we can find peace. If everyone understood this and aligned themselves with these values, we would have a much better world. The current situation that we are facing is proof that we all want these same characteristics. COVID-19 shows us that there are things that no amount of money can buy, and that is health and security. The world is giving us this pandemic as a reality check. It is allowing us to see how it feels to be extremely vulnerable and impotent. We are seeing how the richest people in our country are losing loved ones and their whole businesses and life savings. We are seeing that it can happen to us too. We are learning to be empathetic the hard way. We are seeing how it feels to be people that are struggling for their human rights.
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Published: August 3, 2020
Written by Paula Bernasconi, WYA Latin America Office Intern
