Upholding human rights enables a society to put people at the center of all policymaking – political, economic and social – thus protecting the life and dignity of the human person whatever its condition or stage of development. In the year 2020, the world entered into the novel coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented crisis that impacts all aspects of life and presents new threats to upholding human rights.
December 10 is International Human Rights Day. Join us in reciting this prayer by Rabbi Brant Rosen. Explore our Lenten Reflection Guide on human rights.
To understand what our faith teaches about human rights, see “Catholic Social Teaching and Human Rights.”
To learn about Maryknoll mission experience honoring and protecting human rights and the life and dignity of the human person, especially those who are poor and vulnerable, read Maryknoll’s 100 Years of Mission.
To learn about human rights advocacy, watch a 30-minute webinar, “Human Rights Advocacy and the Legacy of Sr. Dianna Ortiz.” You will also find a corresponding page of resources on current human rights issues.
To learn about new threats to human rights, see our articles featured in Maryknoll Magazine:
Upholding Human Rights During the Pandemic
A “David and Goliath” Story of Water Defenders
Sr. Helen Graham, MM, who serves in the Phillipines, wrote the following reflection which was published in A Maryknoll Liturgical Year: Reflections on the Readings for Year B, available from Orbis Books.
Former lay missioner Barb Fraser (Peru) wrote the following reflection, which was published in A Maryknoll Liturgical Year: Reflections on the Readings for Year B, available from Orbis Books.
Fr. Bill Donnelly spent decades in Guatemala; he prepared this reflection on the readings for the Feast of Corpus Christi.
All are invited to attend an interfaith vigil on the occasion of the International Day for Protection of Children, Monday, June 1, noon, at Upper Senate Park, 200 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001.
Join the American Friends Service Committee for a Congressional briefing on child detention in Israel and Palestine, Tuesday, June 2.
Ask your representatives to attend a Congressional briefing on the important issue of children in Israeli military detention.
Maryknollers have been actively supporting the SOA Watch campaign to close the School of the Americas (now WHINSEC) at Fort Benning, Georgia since 1990, and you can too. Purchase a limited edition t-shirt and support the growth of the movement for justice and self-determination in the Americas.
Held two decades after the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, which took place in Beijing, a repeated theme at this year’s Commission on the Status of Women was that, in too many places, not enough progress has been made.
The U.S. has the largest immigration detention infrastructure in the world. The expansion of this system in recent years is partly due to the immigration detention bed quota, policy passed by Congress under which 34,000 immigrants are held in ICE detention at any given time: “. . . funding made available under this heading shall maintain a level of not less than 34,000 detention beds.” This policy is unprecedented; no other law enforcement agency operates on a quota system.
In 2015, 14 African nations will hold presidential and legislative elections; by the end of 2016, 25 countries will have held elections.
This article by Sr. Ann Braudis, published in the May-June 2015 NewsNotes, relates something of the struggle in Guatemala during recent decades: it reflects on where the majority of indigenous and poor people find themselves today.
April 15 is the anniversary of an unusual and largely unnoticed “citizen uprising” in Cherán, a small indigenous town of 20,000 residents in the state of Michoacán, México.
Within Brazil, national news programs and newspapers dedicate extensive coverage to several corruption scandals, which has contributed to growing anger toward President Dilma Rousseff and her affiliated Workers Party (PT).
Sr. Euphrasia (Efu) Nyaki, MM, who serves in Brazil, wrote the following reflection which was published in A Maryknoll Liturgical Year: Reflections on the Readings for Year B, available from Orbis Books.
This interfaith vigil will be held as a sign of our solidarity with the hundreds of mothers and children from Central America who are being detained in Texas and Pennsylvania. We will gather to urge President Obama to close all family detention facilities and end this inhumane practice.
The following petition will be delivered to authorities in Brazil. We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, express our vehement opposition to all forms of privatization of the Brazilian prison system…
Sr. Carol Marie McDonald serves as a missioner in Central America, most recently in El Salvador.
Women held in a Texas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prison work for $3/day, their children’s health is deteriorating, and many haven’t been given the opportunity to post a reasonable bond for their release.
