Peace studies have been around a long time. Betty Reardon’s work is a powerful example of the academic side of the “peace conversation”. My work has been more practical based and solidly focused on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Following World War II and the founding of the United Nations, the Declaration was a global response to the war and the Holocaust. It quickly became a bone of contention between the US and the USSR, and remains one of the best kept secrets and one of (if not the) best tool for de-escalating tensions around the world.
In the 1990s, working with Shulamith Koenig, I conceptualized the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education. Approved unanimously by the General Assembly we followed what member states aimed to do over the next 1 0 years to make the Declaration actionable.
What we found was that states did not want their citizens informed, they did not want to use the practical aspects to enhance prospects for peace or to live up to the documents demand that governments protect and defend the human rights of every human being.
Following the Decade, I traveled around the world meeting with officials, civilian leaders, religious figures and citizens. My work took me from Moscow to Taiwan and from Ghana to California. In no place I visited were a majority of people interested in making the changes needed to reform the current system.
In places like Eqypt, during the Arab Spring, or in Ukraine at the time of independence, ready or able to adopt the Declaration as a working or foundational document to establish a human rights/peace oriented framework for governing.
Opportunities were certainly there, need was present, but the will was often lacking. Even in small co mmunities, working with tribal leaders in Africa or with small town police departments in rural or suburban New York, getting buy-in was difficult for the long term, even after training sessions were welcome.
Changing culture is hard, resetting the status quo when a majority of the influencers benefit from things as they are is impossible.
Over these years I have learned many strategies and better understand human behaviors. Human rights and sustainable peace need strong, yet flexible democracies to exist. An educated citizenry that is well informed is vital, and a deep commitment to civic responsibility is essential.
To find all that, and to keep it going for a long enough time to change culture and the wiring of the human brain, requires strong and committed leadership by people who are willing and able to be facilitators, guides, educators, with both patience and determination.
Today I continue my work within a community where all p eoples are represented. This is a global community that has ties everywhere there are human beings. It is not welcome everywhere, even though not one family is without “representation”.
This is the LGBTQ+ community, still being scapegoated, still carrying stigma, but in the last 55 years overcoming great hurdles and finding ways to push through difficult times.
If these “children of the rainbow” can become the universal uniters in a world built and maintained by dividers, the possibility for a peaceful and human rights centered world remains alive. If we raise the boats of those most marginalized, we raise everyone.
About the author
Robert Kesten, Human Rights Advocate, is President & CEO, Stonewall National Museum Archives & Library, one of the world’s largest and most significant institutions of its kind, celebrating 50+ years of preserving history and culture in the face of prejudice and hate. Kesten’s human r ights advocacy has taken many forms, including writing and producing an award winning documentary on the Holocaust at Concentration Camps in Poland, working on the Ghanaian Constitution, coordinating and producing events leading to Ukrainian independence, producing events for the first AIDS day treatment center in the nation, pushing for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ukraine (the first Soviet Republic to do so), challenging book banning, LGBTQIA+ inclusion in schools and navigating anti-LGBTQ sentiments. Kesten also worked on the West Bank during the Intifada and was brought into Egypt and Tunisia during the Arab Spring to try and establish human rights cities.
Robert Kesten has been recognized by the Stevie Awards as a Bronze Winner in the category of ‘Thought Leader of the Year: Government or Non-profit’. He has offered his expertise to: Reuters, the Associated Press, ABC10, the Miami Herald (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), the Sun Sentinel (1, 2, 3), Philadelp hia Inquirer, Washington Press, Florida Atlantic University International Human Rights Symposium, the Herald-Tribune, OutSFL, WSFL, South Florida PBS, Queer News Tonight, Left of Str8 Podcast, OutCoast TV, Pink Media’s #ILove Gay Today, Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden, Money You Should Ask, Savoir Faire Magazine and Podcast, Klifton Fehr, Hollywood Historical Society, The Advocate, Everything & Anything and a Bit Gay, CBNation, Mayor Richard Thomas, In the Den with Mama Dragons, Welcome to Florida Podcast, Teaching While Queer, the William Steel Show.
Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library houses millions of pages of records and materials available to the media, drawing direct lines from our nation’s history to today.
In paragraph #2, it should read, de-escalating, not escalating. Thanks!