The Power of Rights

"Across the world, the conversation about human rights is intensifying. What do human rights mean to you?"

Noting that "[o]pen society and human rights are intimately bound together: one cannot today imagine either without the other", in this video, the Open Society Foundations shares the voices of people around the world who are working to defend and promote human rights. The threats to one are threats to both. The advance of one means the advance of both. From New Orleans, Louisiana, United States (US) to Kampala in Uganda to Jakarta in Indonesia, the Open Society Foundations have backed efforts to establish and protect the rights of all. As people interviewed in this video explain, that commitment to the rights of all has required special commitment to minority rights, women's rights, children's rights, and the rights of physically and intellectually disabled people. This organisation has supported international and transitional justice, as well as efforts to press governments to protect and champion human rights themselves.

In an effort to spark conversation and reflection, the video features activists like Kofi Annan, Bono, Amartya Sen, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, George Soros, and many others sharing their thoughts about commitments to human rights, asking and exploring questions such as: When people see their rights eroded in countries where those same rights have so recently had the strongest champions, what are they to do? When claiming one's rights is said to insult one's family, to disrespect one's tribe, or to betray one's nation, what is one to do? Are the international human rights mechanisms our best safeguards, or must we build new structures for the defense of rights? If independent media have been essential to the advance of rights, how are we to understand the existential dangers that confront journalism today? What do human rights mean for individuals and families beyond the protection of law, beyond the reach of any human rights defender?

In an effort to intensify the conversation about the future of human rights and how best to promote their growth, there is an interactive comments area on this page on the Open Society Foundations website.