December Diversity Message

December is a month of celebrations. Most of the world's religions and cultures have their traditional festivities as a calendar year (that is if you use Gregorian or Julian calendars) comes to its end. Here are just a few well known, well loved, and widely celebrated holidays of the Holiday Season (source - Diversity Best Practices):

• December 2-10: Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday that is celebrated around the world for eight days and nights.
  
• December 8: Bodhi Day, a holiday observed by Buddhists to commemorate Gautama's enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, India.
  
• December 12: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a religious holiday in Mexico commemorating the appearance of the Virgin Mary near Mexico City in 1531.
  
• December 12: Eid Milad Un Nabi, an Islamic holiday commemorating the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
  
• December 21: The Winter Solstice/ Yule, celebrated by Pagans and Wiccans.
  
• December 25: Christmas, the day that many Christians associate with Jesus's birth.
  
• December 26: Boxing Day, a secular holiday celebrated in the UK, Canada Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and South Africa.
  
• December 26 - January 1: Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday started by Maulana Karenga in 1966 to celebrate universal African-American heritage.
  

With all these celebrations going on we want to explicitly acknowledge 
December 10 - the International Human Rights Day, established by the United Nations in 1948 to commemorate the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year the Declaration turns 70!

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, the first Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights who played an instrumental role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home -- so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. [...] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

You can find a lot of interesting information about the history and meaning of the International Human Rights Day at http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/

Please click on the image to the left to read the 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Survey Summary.