Stand up for someone’s rights today—Your stories

28 June 2017

This month Stand Up features some of the stories of how you have stood up for someone’s rights.

Stand up to bullying

By Anousha Ahmed

I was kinda bullied when I was little, and I knew the pain of getting bullied, always being a centre of attack by others who are stronger than you. But there was a part of me saying that you can do lot of things in life. So I took a decision in grade 8 to always make people happy around myself, give them respect and if anyone said anything harsh: just smile and leave. So I started doing that, my thinking about others changed. I got to know that people who say bad things to you or bully you are jealous of the things you have. They have been through a lot and then have no one to listen to their sad story.

And that very thing helped me build my passion to accept people from wherever they come from. I stopped judging people, and started giving them room to heal. So in my view we should give others room to heal. We are all human and we all do make mistakes, so why spread hate when you have been through the same route?

Stand up in partnership

The Stand Up campaign is making great strides in reaching out to groups and organizations that want to help promote human rights and standing up for others. The new partnership with the United Nations Association of America is one such step.

The UNA-USA on the Stand Up campaign’s* goal is to empower a new generation of people in the U.S. to creatively amplify what they do in their daily lives to defend human rights and engage their decisions makers. UNA-USA is a membership organization dedicated to inform, inspire, and mobilize the American people to support the ideals and vital work of the United Nations. For 70 years UNA-USA has worked to accomplish its mission through its national network of Chapters, youth engagement, advocacy efforts, education programs, and public events.

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour launched this promising collaboration at the UNA-USA leadership summit in Washington, DC and a strong mobilisation of the thousands of UNA-USA members all across the US is expected.

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Editor’s note: These stories are in the exact words of the participants and have been edited for length and clarity. They have not been verified for accuracy.

*OHCHR is not responsible for the contents of external links.

Do you have your own story about how you or your friends have stood up for someone’s human rights? Email us, using the form on the Take Action page.

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