International Human Rights Day will be commemorated Wednesday at the Faxon Library in West Hartford.

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The West Hartford Human Rights Commission will be hosting a commemoration of international Human Rights Day in coordination with the West Hartford Public Libraries.

On Dec. 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Faxon Library we will be reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration will be read by more than 50 people in 20 languages.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on (or near) Dec. 10 – the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This year, Human Rights Day kicks off a year-long campaign to mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently 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. It is the most translated document in the world, available in more than 500 languages.

Full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be accessed here.

“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

This will be followed by a presentation by the Connecticut Commission on Rights and Opportunities.

More information can be found at the following Facebook event listing: https://www.facebook.com/events/2017321098550445/.