9/12/2016 ON THE OCCASION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
ON this year’s International Human Rights Day, the United Nations (UN) called the citizens of the world to “take action, stand up for someone’s rights today”.
I will respect your rights regardless of who you are. I will uphold your rights even when I disagree with you.
When anyone’s human rights are denied, everyone’s rights are undermined, so I will stand up.
I will raise my voice. I will take action. I will use my rights to stand up for your rights.
HRA invites citizens not to give up upon violation of their rights, not to turn their heads from violating the rights of others, to get involved, report violation of rights and help realization of the rule of law in Montenegro for the benefit of all.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who most contributed to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948, said that the protection of human rights on a global level begins in our neighbourhood:
Where Do Human Rights Begin?
In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.
Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
In accordance with the activism in the this year’s UNHCHR motto and the name of our organisation, the day before International Human Rights Day, Human Rights Action will spend in providing legal assistance to citizens to file constitutional complaints due to ineffective investigation of police torture during the protests in October 2015 was not conducted more than a year; will participate in a workshop on the rights of children with disabilities, organized by the NGO Association of Youth with Disabilities of Montenegro. From 5 p.m. we are inviting everybody to the lecture on depression of doctor Lidija Injac-Stevović in the centre for education within the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Kotor. The lecture will be held within the project “Beyond exclusion – effective rights for mental health patients”, conducted by HRA, ANIMA and MDAC with EU support.
On Human Rights Day, 10 December, HRA will join colleagues from the NGO Women’s Rights Centre,Women’s Safe House and SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence – Nikšić, in a protest march due to negligent treatment of institutions in cases of violence against women and domestic violence, in order to protect the right to life. The march starts at noon from the Republic Square in the center.
Next week we expect a response from the representative of the new Government to finally come to a sustainable solution for the engagement of teaching assistants for children with special educational needs. Also, HRA will engage in the work of the official working group for the establishment of shelters for the homeless in Podgorica, which, according to the latest information from the Capital City, should be established by February 2017 and we will continue to advocate for urgent accommodation of homeless on another way.
At the end of next week, HRA will organise presentation of the results of research on the application of legal remedies for the protection of the right to trial within a reasonable time in the last five years in Montenegro, within the project “Judicial Reform Monitoring” implemented by Human Rights Action together with the Centre for Monitoring and Research CeMI, supported by the European Union.
