Candlelight vigil marks International Human Rights Day in Moncton

Candles flickered in the cold breeze outside Moncton City Hall on Tuesday evening as human rights activists gathered to mark International Human Rights Day.

Organizers from the group Citizens for Peace called for solidarity with people facing human rights violations around the world, including here in New Brunswick. “When we see people unhoused, it’s up to the community to change the situation,” said Alicia Léger, standing alongside her husband Alonzo Léger. “When people have conflict because of their gender or their faith, we need to stand up.”

Widespread expressions of anti-immigrant sentiment was one of the factors that motivated them to organize the event. Alonzo Léger has noticed more people making explicitly anti-immigrant or anti-Indigenous comments in public, and he noted the importance of challenging hatred and prejudice. He also called for the education system to play a greater role in promoting human rights.

“We’ve lost the capacity to be civil to each other… I was quite surprised how fast that turned,” he said, adding that he’s met people from around the world, particularly the Middle East, through his activism with Citizens for Peace. He urged locals to build bridges across cultures, even if it means stepping out of their comfort zone. “I think it may be nice to be in our comfort zone, but you miss out on the world,” he said.

Alicia Léger noted that Tuesday’s vigil was meant to recognize that human rights are universal. “We’re celebrating the fact that human rights are for everyone, everywhere.” She called the modest turnout at the Tuesday evening vigil “respectable” but noted that many of the people in attendance are already regulars at demonstrations. ” I’d love to see the plaza full tonight with candles.”

Citizens for Peace has organized a number of rallies supporting Palestinian human rights during Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, a military campaign widely condemned as genocidal.

Earlier on Tuesday, in the Legislative Assembly, MLAs from all political parties recognized International Human Rights Day. Lyne Chantal Boudreau, Minister responsible for Women’s Equality, also noted that Tuesday marked the end of an annual 16-day campaign against gender-based violence.

Megan Mitton, Green Party MLA for Tantramar, highlighted issues including housing discrimination. Under the provincial Human Rights Act, landlords cannot discriminate against renters for having children, but it’s an issue that “keeps coming up,” Mitton said.

People facing discrimination are commonly directed to the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission but “the waitlist is many years long,” she said. “They’re unlikely to get any justice going though that.”

She called on the government to separate the Commission from the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour “to ensure its independence,” and said it requires “adequate funding to address the human rights complaints that are coming in.”

International Human Rights Day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly 76 years ago, on Dec. 10, 1948.

The first draft of that document was handwritten by a New Brunswicker, John Peters Humphrey. Born in Hampton, he went on to become a McGill University law professor and director of human rights for the UN Secretariat. Humphrey died in 1995 in Montreal and was buried in Hampton.

The declaration came in the wake of the horrors and atrocities of the Second World War, including the Nazi genocide of Jews, Roma and other people, and the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Other major figures behind the declaration included Eleanor Roosevelt, who was chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights; French jurist René Cassin; Chinese playwright, philosopher and diplomat Chang Peng-chun; and Lebanese philosopher and diplomat Charles Habib Malik.

The theme of Human Rights Day this year was a “call to acknowledge the importance and relevance of human rights in our everyday lives,” the UN’s website states. “We have an opportunity to change perceptions by speaking up against hate speech, correcting misinformation and countering disinformation.”

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).