Each year on December 10th, the international community celebrates Human Rights Day, which takes place during Universal Human Rights Month. The annual commemoration honors the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at its plenary meeting in Paris, France in 1948.
The UDHR was created as a way to codify a shared understanding of basic human rights in light of the devastating mass genocide that took place during World War II. Now the most translated document in the world, the UDHR was originally drafted by a group of appointed representatives from different legal and cultural backgrounds across the globe to outline “the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” Since then, the UDHR has helped strengthen the international human rights movement, which previously had no grounding in a formal document spelling out the basic “civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights” of all people. Two years later, in 1950, UNGA passed a resolution to establish Human Rights Day and invited all interested countries and organizations to recognize the holiday annually on December 10th.
The 75th anniversary of the UDHR will fall next year, on December 10, 2023. In preparation for this, the United Nations is using Human Rights Day 2022 to kick off a year-long campaign showcasing the impact of the UDHR on the ongoing fight for human rights. Under the slogan “Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All,” the campaign hopes to increase awareness around the tenets of the UDHR worldwide.
How Smith and Fund II Foundation Stand Up for Human Rights
Robert F. Smith supports numerous initiatives that help protect human rights as founding director and President of Fund II Foundation, a grantmaking organization that donates to nonprofits working toward positive societal change. Established in 2014, Fund II Foundation is guided by the mission to “safeguard human rights, preserve the African-American experience, provide music education, protect the environment and sustain critical American values.”
Since inception, Fund II Foundation has awarded almost $255 million in grants across eight focus areas, including education, social justice, health, environment, career readiness, digitization, “music and arts” and cultural preservation. Below are three organizations that Fund II Foundation supports:
- Student Freedom Initiative: Student Freedom Initiative is a nonprofit organization that provides alternatives to private student loans and Parent PLUS loans for students attending Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). To launch the organization, Fund II Foundation provided SFI with a $50 million donation in 2020, which Smith matched with his personal funds. In addition to loan alternatives, Student Freedom Initiative offers tutoring, mentoring and internship opportunities to students that can help advance their careers.
- United Negro College Fund: Founded in 1944, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is a charitable organization that provides scholarships for Black students to attend HBCUs. The organization has helped over 500,000 students since its inception, and has awarded $11 million in scholarships in their top five cities of New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
- National Park Foundation: The National Park Foundation is the official charitable organization of the National Parks Service and works to preserve national parks across the United States. Fund II Foundation has made multiple donations to the National Park Foundation, including to the Pullman National Monument in Chicago, Illinois and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia.
Learn more about Smith’s efforts to safeguard human rights.
