Every year on December 10, the international community celebrates Human Rights Day. 

Human Rights Day is in honor of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by the United States in 1992. This international treaty declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. All people have the right to life, liberty, and bodily autonomy. All people are entitled to equal protection of the law. All people have the right to vote and equal access to public services.

For today’s Human Rights Day celebration, I encourage the legal community to reflect on what it means to have inalienable rights and equal dignity and worth of every person.

Many of the rights articulated in the Declaration have been enshrined into U.S. law through the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment, so it’s easy to dismiss the topic of human rights as an international relations issue, not one that touches on our everyday lives as Americans. 

But today, Human Rights Day, is a reminder that our human rights are not based solely on what U.S. lawmakers or nine members of the Supreme Court say it is.  

We all have inalienable rights, regardless of race, color, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status. Where the law does not recognize those rights, they can and must be changed. 

As attorneys, we must not remain complacent and fall into that status quo logical fallacy that the current state of the law is by definition ethical or equitable.  

Our lawmakers and the Supreme Court don’t have the final say on our human rights. We do.

As attorneys, we have an obligation as the legal experts of our communities, not only to participate in our democracy through voting but to help shape the laws that make our democracy. 

On Human Rights Day I encourage you to get involved. Speak to your local school board and insist that they teach historical injustices in American society. Use your connections and legal skills to advocate in your state against bills that would restrict rights like the right to vote, reproductive freedom, or access to bathrooms for gender minorities and for bills that enhance the rights of marginalized communities.

L4GG is right there with you. In 2021, our policy team began developing 50 state surveys of state laws that fail to protect the rights of marginalized populations and developing model state policies based on widely supported federal bills to address the issue.

In 2022, we will continue that work and will start training members like you to become legislative advocates at the state and local level, where so many important policy decisions are made. 

Together we will be the change we wish to see in the law and ensure that equal justice for all Americans will be realized.

Adam Fernandez
Vice President, Policy and Strategic Engagement
Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) and L4GG Action Fund