Discovering Human Rights is a project about understanding and advocating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted by the United Nations after the Second World War. Although December 10, 2008 was the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the declaration, most people are not familiar with its powerful and hopeful advocacy of human rights for everyone.
      We want to continue the ideas offered by Eleanor Roosevelt; that human rights begin in small places, close to home, places “where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.” Her guide to community action was presented at the 1958 tenth anniversary of the UDHR entitled, “In Your Hands.” Today we can extend our reach with mobile technology, placing information and guidelines in the hands of people all over the world. 
      The first part of our educational material offers links to web sites where people can learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For example at
www.everyhumanhasrights.org.
      The next step is to find daily life examples of one or more of the thirty human rights listed in the declaration. These examples can be observed in oneself and other people and documented with mobile technology, such as a cell phone. It is often the efforts of an individual or small group that create a moment of caring for freedom, for dignity, and express this ideal in a personal way. These examples will help see how our rights can be respected, before abuse escalates, and violations turn into a war or genocide.
       After the observations are captured, they can be sent to a community site where the images and text will become part of a larger collection of examples. By sharing a person’s actual experience and those they admire, a global view of human rights can be seen as a group image, such as could be created with something like the program Photosynth. The individual examples can also be explored to find strategies that work to respect human rights. For example, Los Angeles gang members could discover common goals and nonviolent means of communication while performing in a small theater production.
      In summary, the project can begin with a pilot study with an age range from middle school to seniors that includes different cultures and people with disabilities. People will learn about their human rights by observing and performing examples of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, documenting these examples, and sharing their ideas on an Internet community site. The site will offer ways of seeing the information in different and dynamic perspectives, such as a community image. Whether information is expressed through cave paintings or images in a virtual world, it is time to explore how our ideas can become guidelines for daily life actions that encourage respect for human rights.

In addition:

   As a psychologist and co-founder of Elder Voices, Inc a start up nonprofit 501(c) (3), organization, I have worked with issues of human rights and health care for many years.At present, our organization focuses on the development of educational material and advocacy for human rights that we hope helps prevent abuse.
  Examples of our current work can be seen on the virtual world Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech%202/80/98/33. The project is called “Create a Universal Language” and offers a virtual campfire where people can come and share their stories about human rights. Information about human rights is offered in different forms, such as video, links to web sites, a virtual book, and slides. We would like to extend this work to real life situations using mobile technology.