(English) “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. […] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.」

Eleanor Roosevelt

On Human Rights Day 2020, we, at Daly & Associates, reflect on our work over the past twelve months and recognise that the rights that so many of us routinely take for granted continue to be routinely denied to many others.

Theirs are the stories of the anonymous; names on papers; the traumatised, the displaced, the poor, the isolated, the desperate and the sick; but to those who have the power to decide their fate, their rights are, so often, unworthy of recognition and have no real meaning

‘Close to home’, here in Hong Kong, not a ‘small place’, but ‘Asia’s World City’, where do human rights begin? What can we do to uphold those rights?

We asked our staff for their thoughts………

 

 In a substrata of Hong Kong’s bureaucratic machine, decisions are being made that go to the very core of human existence; decisions that dictate whether families should be permitted to stay together, or whether they should be torn apart. Too often, scant regard is had to protection of the family unit – the fundamental unit of society – and in the decisions that we see, “justice and judgment lie often a world apart”[1]. However, when faced with brick walls, we must continue to find ways through.

 

A government policy arbitrarily implemented is most dangerous, for it leaves vulnerable people at its mercy!! May 2021 bring a positive closure to a decade-long fight for families and children waiting for the most basic human right: the right to be with their families here in Hong Kong.

 

Where are the peacemakers?

 

“We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“Hope will never be silent.” – Harvey Milk

 

「『We are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.」 – Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Amid the “Black Lives Matter” movement, I would like to share a quote from Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Black Panther Party, who was assassinated by the police during the 1969 Chicago Seven Trial, “We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.”

 

“We will never give up this fight.”

 

‘We have nothing to lose but our chains”

 

「Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.」 – Margaret Mead

 

“Limited gains in gender equality and women’s rights made over the decades are in danger of being rolled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the UN Secretary-General said in April 2020, appealing to the world for a sustainable development and support on the lives and futures of women and girls.

 

[1] Emmeline Pankhurst