While Jews in America today enjoy unprecedented religious and political freedom, innocent men, women and children around the globe are deprived of such freedoms and are subject to gross and indecent abuses of their most basic human rights, sometimes by their own government. As a people who were ourselves enslaved, we embrace our responsibility to speak for those who cannot be spoken for, to defend the defenseless, and to protect the innocent. To this end, we must speak out about the unfathomable human rights violations which dominate so many regions of the globe.

Human rights are in peril around the world and here in our own back yard.  In 2008, the Union for Reform Judaism passed a resolution titled “International Human Rights,” in which the Movement re-committed itself “to fulfilling [our religious] obligation by raising awareness of, and speaking out against, human rights abuses wherever they exist.” The resolution called on the governments of the United States and Canada, and all other nations to “end human rights abuses; ratify international treaties, conventions and declarations (“international human rights agreements”) that promote human rights; and hold themselves and each other to commitments arising from their ratification of international agreements as they apply to human rights.” The URJ resolved to “Promote appropriate actions to implement and enforce international human rights law and international humanitarian law such as targeted sanctions, arms embargoes, deployment of peacekeeping forces, humanitarian assistance, and socially responsible business and investment practices that will create a sustainable peace in conflict areas and eliminate the circumstances that allow human rights abuses to occur.”

Human Rights Issues are covered on the following RAC issue pages:

• Human Trafficking
• Child Soldiers
• Conflict Diamonds
• Africa
• Religious Persecution
• Sudan
• Torture