Written by Laura Demicoli
What is Human Rights Day?
On the 10th of December in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document holds the inalienable rights which are entitled to every human being, irrespective of religion, gender, race, colour, social background or any other status. Since then, 10th December was recognized as Human Rights Day, which is celebrated every year.
Human Rights Day 2019
This year was the 71st Anniversary of the adoption of the Human Rights Declaration and the theme for this year was Youth Standing Up for Human Rights. This theme highlights the importance of empowering youths to learn more about their human rights and violations because we are the next generation who can create a positive change towards a better world.
Defending Your Rights Campaign
In keeping with this year’s theme, the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace (SCORP) from Malta Medical Students’ Association (MMSA) created the Defending Your Rights Campaign to shed light on the violations of our human rights and to give advice on what we can do in such cases.
The 4 main topics which were tackled in this campaign were:
- Domestic Violence
- Human Trafficking
- Gender Equality
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Through this campaign, we targeted…
… 80 sixth form students through peer education sessions
… 4th-year medical students through a history-taking workshop on victimology
… 60 medical students through a wheelchair basketball tournament
… 40 MMSA members and around 100 University students through our main outreaching event on Quadrangle University.
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened”.
John F. Kennedy
Our main outreaching event was held on 11th December during degree plus hours where fellow MMSA members helped raise awareness on the violation of human rights and encouraged students to visit our stands to get informed! For this event, we collaborated with various external organisations to share information with the students on the various topics mentioned above. Such organisations included Appogg, Victim Support Malta, Commission on Gender-Based Violence & Domestic Violence, UNHCR Malta and Malta Paralympic Committee.
The outcome
At the event, we also collected a sum of money for charity through a fundraising activity selling non-alcoholic mulled wine and Christmas treats. Furthermore, over 80 items including books, toys and warm clothes were collected. These items were then donated to refugee children at Marsa Open Centre during a MMSA Christmas volunteering event.
A huge thanks goes to the Defending Your Rights team – Katryna Vassallo, Andrea Schwaiger and Michael Pio Cilia for making this event a successful one!
#defendyourrights
