Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 11, 2014 News
Human rights champions and members of civil society turned out in their numbers at a youth
rally hosted by the Guyana Equality Forum in the heart of the city yesterday.
The activity which attracted citizens from all walks of life, marked the observance of International Human Rights Day, which was commemorated under the theme, “Human Rights 365!” This observance is celebrated annually on December 10.
International Human Rights Day was established by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1950, and is observed to highlight the fundamental rights that all people are entitled to as a global community.
The day has since been chronicled as one where Governments, the UN system and civil society organisations organise a myriad of activities. This year, the Guyana Equality Forum (GEF) – the unified voice for a number of local organisations – organized a youth rally to commemorate this day.
Participating organisations included Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association’s youth arm – Youth Advocacy Movement; Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN); Volunteerism Support Platform of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport; Stella’s Sisterhood of Support and Service Foundation (S4); Guyana National Youth Council; Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD);
Deaf Association of Guyana; Youth Challenge Guyana; Guyana National Youth Council; Volunteer Youth Corps; Help and Shelter; and the Guyana Business Coalition, among others.
These organisations which work in the field of human rights and community development, told participants that human rights is everybody’s business.
GEF is a coalition of civil society movements fighting for the rights of all and its administrative duties are executed by SASOD.
Speaking to Kaieteur News, SASOD’s Advocacy and Communication Officer, Schemel Patrick said it has become practice for the group to host activities in commemoration of International Human Rights Day.
She said “we are most known for a ‘Walk for Equality’ but this year we decide to have a Youth Rally.”
The rally, Patrick explained, provided an opportunity for youth-focused organisations to discuss the work that they are doing and to engage, educate and empower youth.
She reflected that the global focus for Human Rights Day is “Human Rights 365” but the GEF has narrowed it to focus specifically on youths and as such a number of these organisations were invited to participate as well as to attend the rally.
The rally was one which featured enthusiastic bikers and skaters, information booths, a cultural concert, a mural painting and a photo booth, among other things.
The information booths, Patrick explained, were there to provide an opportunity to educate people on what the groups have been doing.
The mural was one which encouraged persons to leave their human rights message. The photo booth was one of SASOD’s initiatives which launched its Instagram page (SASOD Guyana) yesterday and was encouraging persons to send photos with an equality message so they can share it on the page.
The cultural concert was one which featured a humble group of drummers from the Diamond Special Needs School. The group, comprising of five hearing impaired students, managed to awe the crowd with their rhythmic performance.
“Everything,” the Advocacy and Communication Officer, “ties into the global theme Human Rights 365” which reminds that every day of the year, we are all equal everywhere. She said the theme for the Youth Rally, however, was “Youth voices matter: Educating, Empowering and Engaging youth.”
Patrick opined that the activity was an excellent opportunity to sound the message of human rights.
This activist is of the view, however, that Guyana still has a far way to go to realizing the full potential of human rights.
She told this publication that there is a need for a national advocacy on human rights and no one should be excluded from it.
“That (human rights) is something for everyone and we need to be more cohesive in advocating for human rights…There is always room for more, but civil society is doing quite a lot now and the Guyana Equality Forum is doing its part.”
The Youth Rally, which started at 14:00 hrs, concluded at 18:00 hours.
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