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The United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights

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