How to Make a Difference
One question comes up more than any other in my Human Rights Across Cultures class: Do the painstakingly negotiated articles in international human rights agreements really make a difference in people’s lives? After all, there is no global police force that can enforce rights against torture, forced disappearance, or sexual violence. International standards are violated every day, even in the United States. Does the idea of human rights really help people and hold abusers accountable?
The stories gathered in Wesleyan University Magazine’s Spring 2025 Issue show why the answer is at least sometimes “yes.” Admittedly, none of the alumni profiled simply invokes a human rights treaty that magically solves a problem. In each case, they have to fight, persevere, collaborate, and use creativity to bend circumstances in a positive direction. Many of them work domestically in the United States, where we rarely hear the language of human rights. Still, a commitment to human rights is at the core of all of their work. They all see that each and every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and to have access to the basics needed for a decent life. Whether or not they quote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they put it into practice every day.
Because international standards do not implement themselves, fighting for the realization of basic human dignity takes a whole range of advocates working toward common objectives. Progress requires the efforts of investigators, observers, storytellers, report writers, organizers, lawyers, protesters, politicians, and more. We therefore celebrate the different ways in which our graduates have helped to build a national and worldwide ecosystem of individuals and organizations fighting for the basic rights that every human deserves.
Stephen Angle is the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies and a professor of philosophy. He is the author of six books, including Human Rights and Chinese Thought (Cambridge, 2002) and Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life (Oxford, 2022).
