Human Rights Day 2025

            Eleven days ago, precisely on 10th of December, all over the world remembered the importance of human rights and the fight for justice when they are disrespected. Never a human rights defender has had so many rights violated, never was so harmed, humilliated and bullied but now all the world is demanding justice. Join us in this worldwide movement for justice, democracy and my political rights.  .I have a YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010.     This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/11/human-rights-day-2025-our-everyday-essentials. The second was published at https://www.cesr.org/human-rights-day-2025-reclaiming-human-dignity-in-a-moment-of-strained-foundations/

              "Human rights are our compass in turbulent times, guiding and steading us through uncertainty," said UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, marking the launch of the 2025 Human Rights Day celebrated on December 10. "Inequalities are rising, conflicts are raging, the climate emergency is mounting, and some are creating and trying to deepen divisions within societies and between countries. But we must not give up," said Turk in his video message. "We need more solidarity and more human rights to address the current challenges. It is crucial to keep advocating for our fundamental rights," he said. Our Everyday Essentials, this year's UN Human Rights Day Campaign, seeks to reaffirm the enduring relevance of the UDHR and its core values, equality, justice, freedom, and dignity, reminding us that human rights remain a steadfast promise for society. This campaign highlights two interconnected aspects of human rights: the extraordinary nature of their founding as one of the world's most groundbreaking global pledges, and their everyday, essential presence woven into our lives. The abstract becomes real when we realize that everyday actions, spending time with family, reading news, walking freely, drinking clean water, or enjoying a meal, are made possible by human rights in practice. By bridging the gap between the principles of human rights and daily experiences, Our Everyday Essentials campaign seeks to raise awareness, inspire confidence, and encourage collective action. Beyond inviting reflection, the campaign provides a space for people to share what they consider essential in their lives, transforming the concept of connection into a concrete reality. Together, these personal experiences form a rich mosaic of voices and perspectives.                                                                                                                                                       Alongside the crises affecting people's daily lives, anti rights networks all over the globe continued to promote messages designed to narrow who is considered deserving of rights. These actors often use fear, misinformation, and selective outrage to divide communities along artificial lines. They question the legitimacy of the human rights framework and try to erode public support for equality, inclusion and social protection. In this context, defending human rights means reaffirming their value in people's daily lives and expanding the coalitions that can advance them. It involves telling stories about how rights support shared prosperity, safety, and belonging, and highlighting whose interests are served when these commitments are weakened. Here, we summarize some of the strategies employed to protect and harness the power of human rights. Real progress depends on the connections that allow people to coordinate their efforts and shape shared strategies. Across issues and regions, advocates need spaces where they can compare their realities, understand how economic rules influence them, and chart common paths forward. This connective work is often overlooked, yet it is essential for building power and sustain change.  We can contribute to this infrastructure by bringing together grassroots organizer, academic researchers, civil society networks, and public officials. We create opportunities to exchange insights, explore the links between fiscal choices and rights, This year, we helped deepen the conversation about how across many contexts, people are already building the alliances needed for transformation. They work across border and sectors, strengthen local and global links, and imagine economic systems that protect dignity. This is the story we honour on Human Rights Day. A story of dignity defended, freedom asserted, and justice demanded again and again, against the odds. If this year has shown us anything, it is this: human rights can't be fulfilled without adequate financing, they're intimately connected to the economic rules that shape people's daily realities. Economic and social rights give democracy its substance, multilateralism its legitimacy, and communties their power to confront corporate abuse and populism. That is why, more than ever, we must join forces across movements, regions and generations. We must work together for rights that redistributes power, resources, and opportunities, rights that places dignity, freedom and justice at the center of global-decision making. On this Human Rights Day, we recommit to this work with renewed clarity and resolve, because another world is possible. Together, we are already building it.             

International Human Rights Defenders Day

                   Last Tuesday, precisely 9th of December, all the world celebrated the fighting, the courage, the sacrifice, the resilience, the work of the human rights defenders.I have a YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010.    This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at https://www.internationaldays.co/event/international-human-rights-defenders-day/r/recUe5PYdSrs6Edw9. The second was published at https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/oped-rights-defenders-pay-high-price-for-change/

                      International Human Rights Defenders Day is held on December 9th. This observance raises awareness of the abuses peaceful human rights defenders experience, including being prosecuted, convicted, jailed, intimidated, tortured, and sometimes killed. These acts of violence involve human rights activists, land and environmental defenders, trade unionists, affected community members, and civil society organizations at the forefront of protecting rights and civic freedoms. More than ever, states must ensure that human rights defenders have safe, open, accessible, and favorable environment to work.                                                                                                    Across the globe people are standing up for justice, dignity, and basic rights. The world is witnessing a sharp rise in protest repression, even in so-called democratic states. The CIVICUS Monitor paints a worrying picture: only 40% out of 198 countries maintain an open civic space. Freedom of expression violations appeared in 49 countries, while peaceful assembly violations made up 29%. Alarmingly, detention of human rights defenders was recorded in at least 58 countries. Such repression can take place anywhere, from authoritarian countries to what are considered to be mature democracies. With nations previously known for their civil liberties added to the CIVICUS Watchlist for decline in civic freedoms. When democracies tighten civic space, authoritarian actors feel empowered to escalate their own crackdowns. This is a dangerous trend. Takaedza comes from Zimbabwe, where his journey as a protest organizer taught him what state repression looks like up close. Asma was arrested in Bahrain for organizing protests. She is now exiled in France because she dared to demand rights that should never be negotiable. Today, Asma leads the, 'Stand As My Witness' campaign at CIVICUS, which advocates for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders around the world. We do this work professionally, but we also know what it means to be persecuted and to feel abandoned. To the contrary, we know how life-changing it can be when the world stands in solidarity with you. To be persecuted for speaking out is not just a legal issue, it is emotional, mental and deeply personal. The results are isolation and fear, and not to mention the constant threat that your activism might cost your freedom, or worsen your life. But it is also resilience. It is the stremgth of knowing you are not alone. And that's where you reader, come in. This fight is yours too. Here is you, and the rest of the world, can stand with those risking everything for justice. Some regimes are sensitive to international perception. Public exposure through social media, open letters and campaigns like Stand As My Witmess, can be a poweful deterrent. When defenders are imprisoned, they often feel abandoned, but just knowing their names are being spoken and their stories are being shared gives them strength. Solidarity is not symbolic, it is strategic. It reminds governments that the world is watching, and assures imprisoned activists that they are not alone. Many human rights defenders operates under immense strain with limited resources. Help shift the narrative from passive sympathy to active solidarity. Fight for your rights at home and abroad, call on governments to respond. That means pushing your elected officials to speak out on local and global abuses, provide asylum for persecuted human rights defenders, and safeguard civic space as a whole. Democracy is not static. When we lose it in one place, we all feel the effects. If you lose your ability to protest peacefully in your own country, it will be even harder to stand up for the rights of others across borders. Next, use your platforms, whatever it is. Whether you are an artist, educator, influencer, student, or professional, use your space of expression to amplify human rights defenders' voices. Bring their stories into classroom, to the media, and to workplaces. Advocate for them publicly. Help shift the narrative from passive sympathy to active solidarity. Last of all, don't forget to celebrate human rights defenders only at negative times such as when they are imprisoned or killed. Their courage deserves celebration. Nominating them for awards, fellowships, scholarships, candidacy for public offices. Change is possible as long as across the globe, people organize, resist, and imagine a more just and free world. If we want a world where justice is not punished, where peaceful protest is not criminalized, where human rights defenders don't pay with their lives, then we must act now.

Understand the Psychological Impact of Oppression Using the Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale

                       Psychology is the most wanted course in the public university here in J.F. It is good to know that the students understand the necessity and the demand for better mental health here. For twenty five years I've been suffering with high stress, anxiety, insomnia and depression but now all th world is demanding justice. I'd like to thank all support and solidarity. For many years I've been hearing that people don't care about injustice, but now we all know that it is a lie. I have a YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010.      This post is a summary of the article published in 2023 at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9850126/

                 Oppression refers to systemic discrimination where the injustice targets or disproportionately impacts specific groups of people. The Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS) is a sel-report measure designed to assess the traumatizing impact of discrimination broadly by measuring anxiety-related symptoms of trauma due to discriminatory experiences. This may include symptoms arising from many forms of marginalization. The relationship of TSDS scores to clinical psychopathologies are examined, including stress, depression, anxiety, and Pos-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We also examine how having multiple marginalized identities increase traumatization. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed. Oppression describes an asymmetrical power dynamic characterized by domination and subordination of a group by restricting access to social, economic, and political resources. Subordinated groups experience fear, stress, and may develop negative views of themselves. As a chronic stressor, oppression can lead to poor mental health. Studies consistently link increased vulnerability to negative mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, major depression, panic and phobic disorders, as well as antisocial personality. Oppression predicts poor mental health. A meta-analysis of 66 studies concluded increased exposure to stress from discrimination was a stronger predictor of depression and anxiety. As chronic experiences, oppression can even be traumatizing. Despite the growing evidence showing oppression-based stress can be traumatic and relates to symptoms of PTSD, research on oppression-based stress and trauma is limited. The Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS) is a 21 item self-report measure that broadly assess the traumatizing impact of discrimination. This study shows trauma symptoms increased with recent and past experiences of discrimination, and microaggressions. We found intersectionality and multiple stigmatized identities increases risk for trauma symptoms, which is somewhat consistent with the literature. People with more marginalized identities are more likely to have trauma symptoms, with the larger impact seen in non-white hispanic Americans and sexual minorities. These identities alone were associated with comparable or greater discriminatory trauma. Nonetheless, clinicians should be aware that greater intersectionality is more likely to signal cumulative trauma, and it also can be an impediment to treatment, as has been seen with other disorders as well. A culturally-informed approach to care is critical. Likewise, the 2014 American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics calls for multicultural/diversity competence and justice advocacy. Justice-oriented critics of clinical psychology, however, rebuke the field for its lack of institutionalized support of an intersectional awareness competency, particularly its failure to integrate diversity perspectives. Indeed, despite clear mandates for culturally-informed approaches, clinicians are not trained to assist patients experiencing distress due to marginalized identities. Therapists should assess all patients for PTSD symptoms from discrimination. They may need to ask specifically about these experiences. Coping skills should be tailored to address the patient's unique intersectional stressors, however coping should not be a substitute for empowerment, as treatment should also explore reducing discrimination in the person's daily environment. Proactive strategies can serve to inoculate against the effects of the cumulative buildup of betrayal traumas and systemic discrimination.