A GLOBAL CONTEXT: EPISODE 1
ACROSS THE GLOBE
Across the Globe: The Advance of Human Rights in the Digital Age focuses on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has been agreed-to by almost every country on the planet to assert that certain rights are common to all persons.
"These rights are written on every human heart," explains our guest, Matthew Daniels, JD, PhD, a leading international human-rights advocate who promotes the use of digital media as a means of advancing human rights and freedoms - including those of children - around the globe.
Don't just see the suffering. You may be tempted to look away. Instead, learn how technology and storytelling combine to be The Great Disruptor in global human-rights violations.
BIOGRAPHY
Matthew Daniels, JD, PhD
Matthew Daniels, JD, PhD, was raised by a single mother, who was disabled by violent crime, in a section of Spanish Harlem with the highest rate of violent crime in New York City. After attending inner-city public schools in New York City, Daniels received a full scholarship to Dartmouth College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1985. He later received a Public Interest Law Scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he obtained both his law degree and a Master’s in Public Administration. He was subsequently awarded a doctoral fellowship in American Politics to study judicial policy-making and the rule of law at Brandeis University.
Daniels is the Chair of Law & Human Rights and Founder of the Center for Human Rights and International Affairs at the Institute of World Politics, where he teaches a course on Human Rights and Counter-Radicalization.
Daniels is the Founder & Co-Director of the Center for Law and Digital Culture at Brunel Law School in London, England, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Handong International Law School in Pohang, South Korea. He has served as an affiliate faculty member at the George Mason University School of Business in Washington, DC, where he developed a course on the protection of human rights online together with a team of faculty from GMU Law School and the GMU School of Business.
Your Assignment
Questions for discussions with others and for your personal journal.
Question 1: Universal or Regional?
You run the UN and have responsibility for implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights across the globe. You are meeting today with leaders of a country who do not permit their citizens to worship in any but one single religion. Any person who refuses is imprisoned and executed. You must persuade these leaders that universal rights apply to their population, but they remind you of a colonial history during which Westerners oppressed their country and suppressed their current worship practices as barbaric. How do you explain that this effort is not imperialism? Using principles of the UDHR, what's your best argument? If they refuse, what's your next step?
Question 2: Do They Exist?
Please view Human Rights 2.0 (1-minute video, above). It's a quick take on Daniels's book of stories of young and old "digital Samaritans?" Are there ways you have been - or a friend has been - a digital Samaritan? What was involved? Was any cost incurred? What has been the impact?
Question 3: Digital Saint?
Who is a saint or Christian author who would have, in your opinion found social media especially helpful in their life's work? Is there a saint or Christian author who is probably better off never having had the option of social media?
Question 4: Why Not?
This broadcast is for you to follow and learn - and heal from the impact of clergy abuse in our Church on your life. It is also for your family and friends to follow and discuss. It's set up in modules so you can do so in convenient timing for your own lives. Not near each other? Is your parish better served with small discussions online, rather than evening gatherings at the center or church? Here are some of our favorite ways to connect online for faith discussions. Why not start your own online discussion group?
MORE EPISODES ON EVERYTHING
Next Week
Rev. Hans Zollner, SJ, President of the Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, shares his experience advancing the dignity and protection of children and vulnerable adults in every region and every culture of the planet.
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