Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Universal Rights
Topic: Society & Civil Religion
“Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual persons; the neighborhoods; the school or college; the factory, farm or office. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless their rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat and activist. She served as the First Lady of the United States from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest serving First Lady of the United States. Roosevelt served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.
Speech to United Nations delegates
Wilson, Andrew, editor. World Scripture II. Universal Peace Federation, 2011, p. 981 [Eleanor Roosevelt].
Eleanor Roosevelt
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Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States and wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was a human rights activist who, as an American delegate to the United Nations in 1948, played a central role in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The real challenge, she liked to tell United Nations delegates in later years, was one of ”actually living and working in our countries for freedom and justice for each human being.”
–Richard N. Gardner [Eleanor Roosevelt’s Legacy: Human Rights (Published: December 10, 1988 in the New York Times)].