The United States of America Embassy Chargé d’Affaires, Jessica Long said individuals should advocate for the rights of others just as they labour for their own, because the lack of rights and a failure to be treated with dignity can be one of life’s greatest inequalities.

Long who said this in a statement to Nampa on the celebration of Human Rights Day added: “Everyone deserves them, but not everyone has them. On Human Rights Day this year, let everyone who believes in and struggles for their own rights and dignity continue that determined march for the rights and dignity of every individual.”

She said just as individuals who believe in human rights, governments are also vulnerable to abuses which can weaken them including human trafficking that penetrates borders and corruption that undermines economic growth and justice.

“Democracies deliver better for their citizens than any other form of government, but our democracies, from the United States to Namibia, must have the determination and commitment to face and defeat these threats and continue to work to advance human rights in our own countries and around the world,” said Long.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December, the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document proclaims the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency