Did you know that in response to the “experience” of World War II, the United Nations adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948? You’re not alone.
The beautifully written document’s primary purpose was and still is "promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” To summarize, the document calls for equality, covering economic, political, and civil rights.
U.N. committee head and co-author, Eleanor Roosevelt, advised against ratifying the document as a formal treaty that could be contested. Rather, Roosevelt held out high hopes the Declaration of Human Rights would be as revered universally as the Declaration of Independence as a model of higher consciousness offering “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” not just to Americans, but every man, woman, and child around the world.
Read the preamble and each Article and you might cringe to note how even governments continue to disregard many of the tenets meant to protect our rights and our freedom in the pursuit of self-interest.
Article 5, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Article 9 states, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” No doubt you’ve seen news report involving such scenarios as recently as last night.
IMAGINE
What if every school child had been taught about the Declaration over the decades since its inception? Imagine if we’d not only held our hand over our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, but we pledged to honor and uphold human rights everywhere with as much conviction.
Would governments be allowed to stray so far away from these guiding principles? More importantly, would we be now holding ourselves accountable instead of blaming others?
Since 1948, civil rights groups, charities, task forces, agencies, and many more unseen brave souls have committed to the higher calling of salving humanity’s festering wound that continues to discharge fear, hatred, and violence.
These everyday heroes have marched, taken a seat, created programs, fed the hungry, sought to educate, written and sung their hearts out, even losing life and limb all to show the world there IS a better way to live together.
Most recently the United Nation’s closed out its fifteen-year Millennium Declaration adopted in 2000 to address eight key areas – poverty, education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, disease, the environment and global partnership.
Notable was the Millennium Declaration’s step forward in recognizing we live in an “increasingly interconnected and interdependent” world. An assessment of the UN’s goals shows we’ve made progress. “The number of people living on less than $1.25 a day has been reduced from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015...”
Making an assessment of the current state of world affairs, you may be asking yourself, “Is it possible for a code of conduct, declaration, treaty, charter, or even religion to resolve humanity’s existential crisis?
Our social structures, legislated and religious morality and their plethora of documents arise out of an underlying belief system. As long as we treat social diseases with programs without identifying the actual disease (outdated belief system), humankind’s plight will continue.
That ailment is separation consciousness and its offspring, competition. Separation consciousness says we are separate from each other, our environment, creation—and even creation’s Creator, all while competition generates a loser for every winner.
All social structures and resultant documents created out of separation consciousness are limited in application. If humanity remains stuck in separation consciousness, so too, is human life.
NATURAL DESIGN
The beauty of Life is that Creation is not limited. Evolution is Creation in process. Humans are also evolving. As the veil thins (human consciousness evolves), science is just beginning to map out a new reality that all life is interconnected and what that means.
Modeling Creation (Nature locally), we see Creation is constantly, self-sustainably renewing itself. If all life is interconnected, then morality really doesn’t require interpretation, nor does equality, the way we treat one another, the planet, or what we believe about God.
In our new belief system firmly grounded in unity consciousness, we return to what the Masters, Saints, and Sages have extolled for centuries. The Golden Rule, “ Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. ” Why? Because what you do to another has a direct effect on you—other IS you.
This is sustainability in action—the New Golden Rule—and the basis of all morality. Once this is seen, sustainability becomes a universal code of conduct that transcends culture, conditioning, and religion. Another word for sustainability is love.
There is only one modern day human rights Declaration founded in unity consciousness. An initiative of the What Would Love Do Foundation, The Global Humanity Bill of Rights is only 268 words in length yet reveals an entirely new way to live. Mirroring Nature, we become One with an abundant Earth. We finally work in harmony with instead of against Natural Design so that we, too, are abundant. No one is left behind.
A new economy is created as we eliminate selfish profiteering’s busywork and competition to focus on cooperative service to one another. Work days shorten so that we devote more time to family, creativity, and civic responsibilities.
Wars founded in fear of lack end. Humanity moves out of survivalism to finally thrive. Once firmly established, a Bill of Rights of any kind isn’t necessary as we live and breathe our highest potential as love incarnate.
Balance restored, the Global Humanity Bill of Rights becomes the last of its kind. But, first, we must adopt and affirm its message as proof of life to move beyond it.
Imagine all the happy people. Yes, imagine . . .