Student groups to celebrate Human Rights Day

By Jenna Youngs

Published Dec. 9, 2003

To commemorate Human Rights Day on Wednesday, several campus organizations will have displays in Scatter Lounge in Memorial Union for students to peruse and learn about human rights issues.

Human Rights Day is a celebration of the founding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948, according to Amnesty International USA's Web site.

Groups participating in the display include Amnesty International chapter, Students for a Free Tibet and Students for Progressive Action.

Amnesty International will have a display to show how cluster bombs kill civilians. Cluster bombs are big bombs that explode and distribute smaller bombs that shoot in different directions and are then supposed to explode, Amnesty International assistant coordinator Kaitlin Gaffney said. However, she said many times not all of the bombs explode.

"Often more civilians are killed by cluster-bomb attacks than military personnel," Amnesty International member Silas Allard said. "Children pick up unexploded munitions because they look like toys. People go hungry because the fields they farm are filled with these devices. Men and women lose limbs and lives trying to clean up their towns and villages. These are all unlawful, inhumane civilian casualties."

Members of Amnesty International built model cluster bombs to display at their table.

"We've painted aluminum cans bright yellow to look like cluster bombs, and we're sticking notes in them saying things like &#39Bam! You blew up' to show that the bombs are dangerous and inhumane," Gaffney said.

Gaffney and Allard said Amnesty International decided to discuss cluster bombs because they are pertinent to the current war with Iraq.

"It is an increasingly pressing issue given the Bush and Blair administrations' use of cluster bombs during the Iraq conflict," Allard said. "It is our tax dollars building these bombs and our government leaving a horrific and inhumane legacy around the world with their use."

Nationally, other Amnesty chapters will hold events such as poetry slams, candlelight vigils and workshops, according to the Web site. They will address many human rights topics, including the death penalty, women's rights and the political asylum process.

Gaffney said it is important for students to care about Human Rights Day because it makes people aware of injustices and shows them there are ways to help bring about social change.

"The fact is that people all over the world are suffering because they are being denied basic human rights," she said.

The local Amnesty International chapter will sponsor other events later in the year for students to become involved in. In January, the group will hold a week of educational action concerning the use of child soldiers in military conflict, Allard said. It is important for students to become involved in Amnesty, he said.

"Amnesty International offers an effective way for students to voice their concern and to help change the preponderance of human rights abuses around the world," he said. "We live in a world where millions of people are treated as less than humans, and there is no better time to stand up against that injustice than now."