—John Lennon

Santander, Spain

By a street artist named Pejak…

—Thomas Merton, 1915-1968 (No Man Is an Island)

London, UK

Ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden has delivered an “alternative” UK Christmas message, urging an end to mass surveillance. The broadcast was carried on BBC Channel 4 as an alternative to the Queen’s traditional Christmas message. The 30-year-old has temporary asylum in Russia after leaking details of US electronic surveillance programmes.

Snowden opened his two-minute message, recorded in Russia, with a reference to novelist George Orwell, author of 1984, saying the surveillance technology described in his works was “nothing compared to what we have today”.

View Edward Snowden’s two-minute video message here.

“Asking is cheaper than spying.”

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Poznan, Poland

Illustrator Pawel Kuczynski portrays today’s social, political, and cultural realities with his thought-provoking work…

See more here.

It all comes down to mutually rewarding communication…

Paris, France

65 years ago today, on 10 December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at Palais de Chaillot, Paris. The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled.

On that day, the Declaration was adopted by a vote of 48 in favor, 0 against, with eight abstentions: the Soviet Union, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, People’s Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, People’s Republic of Poland, Union of South Africa, Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (The South African position can be seen as a kind of protection of the system of apartheid in South Africa, which clearly violated any number of articles in the declaration. The Saudi Arabian delegation abstained mostly for two reasons: because of Article 18 which states that everyone has the right “to change his religion or belief” and because of Article 16 on equal marriage rights. Eleanor Roosevelt attributed the abstention of the Soviet bloc nations to Article 13, which provided the right of citizens to leave their countries).

Many consider the Declaration to be the most important document ever written, essentially “the international Magna Carta of all mankind.” As such, it has also become the most translated document in the world.

10 December was established as Human Rights Day in 1950, and has been commemorated annually around the world on this date ever since.

Read the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here, or download a PDF of the text here.

(Link to source, with many more, broken — sorry…)

—Nelson Mandela, (1 August 1970)