Human Rights Day
Swiss Freethinkers hold annual events on Human Rights Day.
Every year on 10 December, human rights activists and humanists all over the world celebrate Human Rights Day. This is the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the United Nations. The UN approved it in Paris on 10 December 1948. A core sentence of the UN Human Rights Charter is: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights".
The Declaration of Human Rights states that certain basic needs and rights belong to all human beings, regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, wealth, birth or other status. These rights include a life of freedom, security, and the prohibition of torture and persecution.
Since 2012, Swiss Freethinkers have also been organising annual events on Human Rights Day.
2012: Who determines what are human rights?
Who determines what are human rights? And how? The lawyer and politician Gret Haller pursued these questions in the reading from her book «Menschenrechte ohne Demokratie?»
2013: Podium: Assisted dying in prisons: (how) is that possible?
Can the state allow prisoners to die at their request? How much right to self-determination do they have, how much duty of protection does the state have? How should hunger strikers be dealt with? Should right-to-die organisations be allowed to care for prison inmates?
Panel discussion with
Toni Amrein, Head of Execution and Probation Service Canton of Zug
Ludwig A. Minelli, founder of the right-to-die organization Dignitas
Markus Müller, Professor of Public Law at the University of Bern
Peter Schneider, psychoanalyst and columnist
Host: Andreas Kyriacou, Freethinkers Zurich