Human Rights Day Statement 2020

The full Statement by His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, on Human Rights Day 2020 can be found via our Media and Communications Office Wesbsite: www.CopticMediaUK.com, Direct link: https://bit.ly/3m0t3RX

Statement by His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, on Human Rights Day 2020

10 December 2020

As we commemorate Human Rights Day this year while experiencing the devastation of a global pandemic, we are ever more conscious of the importance of human relations and interaction, and the value of every human being. While Covid-19 has indeed affected the whole world, it has increasingly come to light that when tragedies or challenges befall individuals and communities, those who are already vulnerable, marginalised, discriminated against, and/or oppressed, are impacted disproportionately to a much greater extent. Sadly, these same individuals and communities tend to be deprived of the provisions and safeguards ensured by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[1], a document adopted by the United Nations in 1948 affirming the inalienable equal rights of everyone, everywhere.

This year in Britain we have been placed in a position in which we can directly empathise with so many around the world whose ongoing reality encompasses the challenges of poverty, inequality, restrictions on public worship, financial instability, the inaccessibility of education, and so much more. We have become familiar, first-hand and for the first time in over a century, with child poverty and child food poverty, something no society should endure or tolerate. While we are becoming more aware of these vulnerabilities within pockets of our own societies, we must remember…