A Creative Writing + Poetry Competition
December 10th is Human Rights’ Day.
Human Rights is for all.
Human Rights affects all.
In a city of 5.18 million,
Some are homeless,
Some don’t have food,
Others work endlessly to make ends meet,
Many deal with discrimination often,
So why have a Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
What does Human Rights mean to you?
MARUAH organised a creative writing and poetry competition to celebrate Human Rights Day 2011. We used the following criteria (link below) to select our winners.
Judging criteria for creative writing and poetry competition “What Human Rights means to me”
Do scroll down to view excerpts from our winners.
6 years ago…
I usually patronize a pushcart run by an old lady who only speaks Oldiese. She makes the best pancakes – light and fluffy crepes slathered with a generous layer of filling. My old-lady-who-only-speaks-Oldiese sells her pancakes just around the corner, everyday from 6 in the morning to 8 at night…
5 years ago…
My old-lady-who-only-speaks-Oldiese stopped selling her pancakes in June this year. GM had sent out its representatives armed with namelists and identity card scanners in May…
4 years ago…
I always wondered where my old-lady-who-only-speaks-Oldiese went. Mornings started without her pancakes were never quite the same…
3 years ago…
If only I had the chance to ask the old-lady-who-only-speaks-Oldiese for her pancake recipe.
Last year…
I should have said something. “Goodbye forever, my old-lady-who-only-speaks-Oldiese”…
Link to full text.
‘I am a Man,’ I quietly said,
‘Therefore I must force nothing onto another.
Human Rights I say Human Rights this way
I shall make Freedom for Me and You.
Link to full text.
“In the garden of Humanity, …
As I gazed at this flower of Hope,
I began to believe in a future race of equality once more.”
Link to full text.
“It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.” – Jeremy Bentham
One must be logical. To discriminate based on race, religion or nationality does no good for society whatsoever. The days that a man was measured according to the color of his skin, his beliefs, or his country, are long gone.
Today, the measure of a man is how useful he is to the rest of society. Logically then, some men must measure less than others. Logically then, those men’s lives are worth less.
Logically then, those men might be a greater good to society dead than alive.
Link to full text.
“Whywhywhy must there be hunger
whenit is simply just Man’s basic need
Whywhywhy the discrimination
when we are all nothing but humans”
Link to full text.
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Celebrate Human Rights! This video is part of the UN Human Rights Office social media campaign – a celebration of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948.
An introduction to the concept of human rights, and the United Nations framework to promote and protect human rights.
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