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The United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights

by Aliya Dossa – Burnaby North Secondary, Burnaby BC Jan 23, 2012

Last month, I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a human rights-based conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. Discrimination was the main theme of the conference, and we discussed its impacts on four levels: discrimination against people with disabilities, discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, discrimination against women, and racial discrimination.

I learned so much about each of these four sub-themes and I want to share some key points and statistics with you:

Discrimination against people with disabilities

  • Many places around the globe are not accommodating of people with disabilities. For example, where we have elevators and wheelchair ramps in Canada, some other countries do not.

Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS

  • People living with this disease are discriminated against in many ways – for example, their mobility rights, or freedom to travel from country to country, are limited.
  • Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV and nearly 30 million people have died of HIV-related causes (UN AIDS).

Discrimination against women

  • Even today, women are paid roughly 70 per cent of what men earn for the same work in the USA (US Department of Labour)
  • Every minute a woman dies from pregnancy and childbirth complications, but 90 per cent of these deaths are preventable (World Health Organization)

Racial discrimination

  • I was once asked to list all of the races which exist in the world. Shortly after I began, I was told to stop being foolish because there is only one race – the human race. These words have resonated with me particularly. Different colours should never equal different treatment.

 
I hope you find these insights as eye-opening as I do. Unfortunately, discrimination exists in all corners of the globe. Although it’s a monstrosity of an issue, we can work together as human rights defenders to make a difference. How? If you see someone being discriminated against, stand up for them – even if it means being the odd one out.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead

Comments (4)
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Care

Submitted by naiyaattech on Mon, 11/26/2012 - 11:55.

That must have been an incredible experience.

Discrimination is everywhere, but much of the cause of it is that people just don't realize what they're saying or doing. When they do realize, it seems there's not much you can do towards someone who has their mind set on hurting you. It's a little disheartening.

So hearing about an active attempt to make a difference means a lot, and I hope that eventually it will spread further than inside the rooms of the UN. Does that start with our generation? We are the ones who will be carrying on that message, and we have the ability to change the future. The question is how many of us are willing to? It seems the majority of teenagers now just don't care, so what do we do?

So True!

Submitted by marisah.hildebrandt on Mon, 05/28/2012 - 10:25.

It's unbelievable how many people can be disciminatory without even realizing it. People need to open their eyes to what's going on. To change the world you must first change yourself.

Not All That Shocking

Submitted by winny_wheats on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 10:57.

What I would like to know is why there is no mention of discrimination against people of different sexual orientation? Is that not also a tragedy, especially since it is so prevalent around the world?

WOW

Submitted by nictsavdaris on Mon, 02/13/2012 - 11:17.

These were very eye-opening to me. Discrimination is something we see a lot of but never take action to, for reasons such as it being a joke. Your points are all very strong to me. The one that really opened my eyes was your final point, racial discrimination. This point was so strong for me because I know that if 99% of the world was asked to name races they would start just as you did, the realization that there is only one, the human race is something we all (myself very much included) forget too often. We are all equal, no matter where we live or who we are. The day we all accept it and realize it is when these dramatic issues will come to a hault. Until that day arrives we must tr our best to work bit by bit to create our surroundings into safe and respectful ones. How amazing the UN Conference must have been for you and thank you for sharing it with us!

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