Geneva Institute for Human Rights

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay marked Human Rights Day on December 10 with a speech hailing the transformative power of online activism.

"In 2011, human rights went viral," she said. "Today, as in the past, editorial and financial factors – as well as access – determine whether or not protests, and repression of protests, are televised or reported in newspapers around the world. But, wherever it happens, you can now guarantee it will be tweeted on Twitter, posted on Facebook, broadcast on Youtube, and uploaded onto the internet. Governments no longer hold the ability to monopolize the dissemination of information and censor what it says."

While the movement for "human dignity" started on the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Benghazi, and Dara’a, she added, it has also taken form in Madrid, New York, London, Santiago and elsewhere, as millions of people from all walks of life have mobilized to make their demands for the civil, political, social economic and cultural rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These global protests "have reminded governments and international institutions alike that health care, and education and housing, and access to justice, are not commodities for sale to the few, but rather rights, guaranteed to everyone, everywhere, without discrimination," she said.

Pillay celebrated the successes of elections in Tunisia and Egypt, where turn-out for the first free and fair elections has exceeded expectations, while mourning the victims of ongoing excessive use of force in places like Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Egypt's Tahrir Square. She also urged listeners to join in the internet and social media campaign recently launched by the High Commissioner's office to help people know, demand and defend their human rights.