10 December 2020. Skopje – Today is 10 December, the International Human Rights Day. On this day in 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global document to articulate human rights and bring them to the forefront globally, as well as one of the greatest achievements of the United Nations. Moreover, the celebration of this day was established exactly 70 years ago, after the General Assembly, on 4 December 1950, invited all members to celebrate it.

The challenges that human rights are facing nowadays are not at all minor. In addition to the severe consequences that the Covid-19 pandemic inflicts on all infected, the pandemic has also contributed to growing poverty, growing inequality, structural and inequitable discrimination, and gaps in the protection of human rights.

The Metamorphosis Foundation, as before, will continue to have the promotion and enhancement of human rights as one of the central goals in its work, as well as the strengthening and advancement of democracy. We will continue to even strongly advocate and promote freedom of thought and expression, as well as the protection of privacy, as one of the most important human rights in the digital sphere and beyond. These aspects are the main preconditions for the well-being of each individual in society, as well as a precondition for building a healthy and developed democracy.

Freedom of thought and expression is also defended through the fight against malignant forms of speech, which are not protected forms of expression, such as hate speech, calls for violence, speech that provokes general danger or is dangerous to human health, discriminatory speech, defamations and insults and others.

One of the main goals of Metamorphosis Foundation is for the public communication in the Macedonian society be dominated by constructive and free speech, which leads to mutual respect and will enhance the common ideas and efforts for the development of our democracy. Accurate and verified information is essential for making science-based democratic decisions, and we, therefore, emphasize the importance of fact-checking. Our main efforts will be to guarantee the freedom of opinion and expression, to upgrade and expand it in every possible way. We will fight against all forms of censorship and will try to make every opinion heard, and at the same time public, constructive and reasoned debate to be the basic way in which issues of public interest are opened, problems are solved and new solutions are reached.

The nurturing and enhancement of human rights are especially important today when the world is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic when we need to work on the post-pandemic world to overcome the shortcomings in dealing with it and build a better today and tomorrow for us all. Of particular importance for all this is the respect of human rights and even more, for them to become a central point when it comes to overcoming the consequences of the pandemic. This is exactly the theme and the main focus of this year’s celebration of Human Rights Day, with the 2020 motto “Recover better- Stand Up for Human Rights!”

The Metamorphosis Foundation congratulates Human Rights Day and invites all of you to join us in promoting and strengthening human rights in our communities.

Metamorphosis Foundation

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