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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), ratified 75 years ago on December 10, 1948, for the first time articulated the rights and freedoms to which every person is entitled.
At the first United Nations General Assembly session in 1946, the newly formed organization proposed the creation of a document that would promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” reads the first article of the UDHR. “They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Influenced by the core values at the heart of the U.S. Constitution, the UDHR affirmed that “the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Former U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was tasked with creating the framework for the document.
Roosevelt worked with the 17 other members of the commission, including representatives from France, Lebanon, China and Canada, to create the UDHR over the course of two years.
Under Roosevelt’s leadership and guided by American principles of liberty and freedom, the U.N. ratified the UDHR. Available in more than 500 languages, the UDHR is the most translated document in the world.
Championing human rights — and the defenders of those rights — remains a U.S. government priority. The Department of State’s Global Human Rights Defender Awards, issued annually, honor people around the world who have shown leadership and courage while promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“The United States has worked to make real our own commitment to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights — both here at home but also around the world,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a December 7 meeting of human rights advocates in Washington. “Defending human rights, affirming human dignity, simply put, reflects our values, reflects who we are.”
A version of this article was originally published September 24, 2020.
During International Education Week (November 13–17) and year-round, the United States celebrates its tradition of promoting understanding between Americans and citizens of other countries through people-to-people exchanges.
In 1940, the U.S. Department of State launched its first international exchange by inviting 130 Latin American journalists to visit U.S. newsrooms.
That first exchange led to the establishment, in 1946, of the Fulbright Program, which awards 8,000 fellowships annually to qualified applicants from the U.S. and elsewhere.
In 1961, the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs was launched to oversee all of the U.S. government’s academic, cultural, sports and professional exchange programs. Since then, exchanges have served 1.7 million students, researchers, educators and scholars who live all over the world. They include:
Today, 30 ambassadors to the United States are alumni of U.S. exchange programs. And seven heads of government are exchange alumni.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, now the president of Mexico, took part in a 1992 International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on international trade. Suriname’s President Chan Santokhi participated in a 1996 IVLP on international crime issues.
Rishi Sunak, who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in October 2022, received a Fulbright Foreign Student award to support his pursuit of an MBA degree at the Stanford School of Business in 2005. Studying business in California’s Silicon Valley broadened his mindset about what is possible, Sunak said.
North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski took part in a 2003 IVLP, while Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou is an alumnus of a 2005 IVLP on sustainable development and environmental protection. Also, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema and Slovakia’s President Zuzana Čaputová are alumni of IVLPs held in 2010.
Learn more about U.S. exchange programs and how to apply as a U.S. citizen or non–U.S. citizen.
A version of this article was originally published November 10, 2022.
When a scientist, doctor, economist or writer residing in the United States is awakened by a pre-dawn phone call from Sweden, it might bring life-changing news of a Nobel Prize.
In many cases, U.S. Nobel laureates are college professors. And their students are as excited as they are.
Professor Moungi Bawendi, who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Boston, jointly won this year’s chemistry prize for developing quantum dots with scientists Louis Brus of Columbia University and Aleksey Yekimov, who works at Nanocrystals Technology Inc.
After what Bawendi called his “surprise and shock” at that phone call from Stockholm, he went to teach his morning class, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics. But Bawendi was sidetracked from his planned lesson by the applause of his students and the food and drinks they and his colleagues had brought to class.
MIT News reports that, after popping a bottle of champagne, Bawendi scrapped the lesson and instead gave students a brief history of his work on quantum dot science. Afterward, he obligingly posed for photos with the students.
Later, at a press conference, he said that the class “went very well, except I didn’t talk [about] what I was supposed to talk about.”
One of Bawendi’s co-winners, Professor Louis Brus of Columbia University, also helps students understand quantum dots (nanosized particles with unique properties that spread their light from television screens and LED lamps).
On the morning of the announcement, Brus received many text messages from students, current and former. “Everyone was thrilled for him,” said Andrew Crowther, who had been a postdoctoral researcher for Brus.
“Louis is an excellent mentor, and I couldn’t have asked for a better adviser during my postdoctoral work,” says Crowther, who is now a professor himself at Barnard College in New York. “Whenever anyone needed guidance, Brus’ door was always open.”
After learning about his own Nobel Prize in physics (shared with with Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier), Ohio State University’s Professor Emeritus Pierre Agostini joined students he mentors on a Zoom call. (He is based in France, but he visits Ohio State twice a year to work with post-doctorate physics students.)
On the call, “we were all jumping for joy,” said Louis DiMauro, a colleague who directs Ohio State University’s Institute for Optical Science.
Agostini’s work involves producing extremely short pulses of light that can be used to provide images of processes inside atoms and molecules. When he mentors at OSU, “he’s kind to the students but he challenges them, and they love it,” DiMauro says. “Pierre spends his day moving from one student’s office to another. They really enjoy their discussions with him.”
Other Nobel winners affiliated with U.S. universities are the University of Pennsylvania’s Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman (who share the 2023 prize for medicine) and Harvard University’s Claudia Goldin (who won the 2023 economics prize).
Dane deQuilettes, an MIT researcher, sums up the student sentiments in his tribute to MIT’s Bawendi on X (formerly Twitter), in which he notes the importance of teachers:
Congrats Moungi! I know that the #NobelPrize doesn’t factor in teaching and mentorship, but he is someone that does it all. So many of us have benefited from his thoughtful skepticism, creative problem solving, and guidance throughout the years. Cheers! pic.twitter.com/eeiywSdOtk — Dane deQuilettes (@DanedeQuilettes) October 4, 2023
Congrats Moungi! I know that the #NobelPrize doesn’t factor in teaching and mentorship, but he is someone that does it all. So many of us have benefited from his thoughtful skepticism, creative problem solving, and guidance throughout the years. Cheers! pic.twitter.com/eeiywSdOtk
— Dane deQuilettes (@DanedeQuilettes) October 4, 2023
Want to study in the United States? Learn about life at U.S. colleges and universities and visit EducationUSA to plan your studies.
The U.S. government, businesses and everyday Americans are addressing the climate crisis and improving the environment.
“Communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks,” President Biden said November 14, announcing release of the Fifth National Climate Assessment. “We can’t be complacent. We have to keep going.”
The assessment by 300 climate experts highlights steps Americans are taking to address the climate crisis, which is already affecting all regions of the country.
Progress includes an estimated 17% decline in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 to 2021, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions in Arlington, Virginia.
While emissions spiked during the economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. emissions showed signs of continuing their long-term downward trajectory in 2023.
Declining emissions come as the costs of wind and solar have dropped — by 70% and 90% respectively — over the past decade, and as the U.S. population and economy have grown.
The continued declines in emissions put the United States on track to meet its goal under the Paris Agreement of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
My Administration has released the Fifth National Climate Assessment in our history. It makes clear that climate change is impacting all regions of our nation – but that communities are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks. We have to keep that action going. pic.twitter.com/s14GbkWe1T — President Biden (@POTUS) November 14, 2023
My Administration has released the Fifth National Climate Assessment in our history.
It makes clear that climate change is impacting all regions of our nation – but that communities are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks.
We have to keep that action going. pic.twitter.com/s14GbkWe1T
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 14, 2023
U.S. consumers are also choosing more sustainable options. In 2022, homeowners bought 4.3 million heat pumps, which do not produce direct emissions, surpassing sales of gas-powered furnaces for the first time. And in the third quarter of 2023, electric vehicle sales jumped by nearly 50% over the same period in 2022, accounting for 7.9% of car sales.
The U.S. government continues to invest in climate resilience and environmental protection. In November 2023, the Biden administration announced $6 billion in investments to improve America’s electric grid, reduce flood risks, support conservation and advance environmental justice.
Since 2021, the Biden administration has protected more than 21 million acres of public lands and waters, preventing species loss and deforestation, which contributes to climate change. Protected lands include the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska, which stores an estimated 8% of the carbon in all mainland U.S. forests combined.
“Conserving ecosystems in their natural state is the single most effective action for addressing nature deprivation, climate disaster, and the massive ongoing loss of species happening nationwide and globally,” Mark Magaña, founding president and chief executive officer of GreenLatinos, based in Washington, said in a White House statement.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, passed away on December 1 at the age of 93. ShareAmerica is featuring this previously published account of her achievements and legacy.
Since this story’s 2016 publication, women have continued to advance to America’s highest court. Justice Amy Coney Barrett has served since 2020 and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson since 2022. Former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020.
Sandra Day O’Connor knows a thing or two about breaking down barriers. As a girl on her family’s ranch in southeastern Arizona, she had wanted to go to the local cattle roundup, then an all-male event.
And she did. “Changing it to accommodate a female was probably my first initiation into joining an all-men’s club,” she recalled in her 2002 memoir.
It wasn’t her last.
O’Connor overcame barriers as a student, as an attorney and in political life. On September 25, 1981, O’Connor crashed through one final barrier, becoming the first woman to serve as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
O’Connor was born in 1930 and spent her early years learning to rope cattle and ride horses. But she soon became interested in the law. O’Connor attended Stanford Law School in California, completing her studies in just two years rather than the usual three. Despite ranking near the top of her class, she found that most law firms at the time were reluctant to hire a female attorney.
Instead O’Connor worked as a government lawyer until returning to Arizona to open her own law firm and enter local politics. She held a variety of public offices. As an Arizona state senator, she became the first woman to serve as a majority leader in a U.S. state legislature. President Ronald Reagan nominated O’Connor to the Supreme Court in 1981, and after a significant career writing opinions from the high court, she retired in 2006.
O’Connor is widely respected for her commitment to public service and her pragmatic approach to the law. But paving the way for other women in the American judicial system remains a big part of her legacy.
Three female justices have followed O’Connor on the high court: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Today, about one-third of U.S. federal judges are women, and the number is increasing.
Justice O’Connor’s story reflects women’s improved access to higher education. Education empowers women to become leaders in their fields and in their communities. As O’Connor’s own story shows, it empowers women to shape their country’s future.
Henry Kissinger, who fled Nazi Germany in his teens and served two U.S. presidents as secretary of state, died November 29. He was 100 years old.
Widely regarded as the dominant American statesman and architect of foreign policy in the late 20th century, Kissinger was admired for his intellect and tough negotiating style. His diplomacy ended the Vietnam War and improved U.S. relations with the United States’ two primary Cold War antagonists, China and the Soviet Union.
Yet his ruthless pragmatism earned him critics, in addition to his many admirers. His policymaking approach — dubbed realpolitik — was driven by a belief that foreign policy should be guided by the national interest rather than by ideology.
In 1938, when he was 15, Kissinger and his family emigrated from their native Germany to the United States, escaping the Nazi persecution of Jews. The family settled in New York, where young Henry (originally named Heinz) worked in a factory while attending secondary school at night.
He enrolled in the City College of New York, hoping to become an accountant, but at age 19 he was drafted into the U.S. Army as the United States entered World War II. He reported for basic training in February 1943 and became a U.S. citizen four months later, at age 20.
During the war, Kissinger’s superior officers recognized his intelligence and fluency in German and steered him to the military intelligence section of the Army’s 84th Infantry Division, where he took on hazardous duties during the Battle of the Bulge.
After the war, Kissinger enrolled at Harvard College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1950. He then earned a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954 from Harvard University.
He joined Harvard’s faculty and wrote about Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich’s efforts to reestablish a legitimate international order in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars of 1803–1815. Metternich would influence Kissinger’s ideas years later, reinforcing a conviction that even a flawed world order is preferable to revolution or chaos.
President Richard Nixon appointed Kissinger national security adviser in 1969.
Kissinger laid the groundwork for Nixon’s 1972 visit to China, which helped to normalize U.S. relations with China.
And, as national security adviser, Kissinger focused on extricating America from the unpopular, costly Vietnam War. Pursuing “peace with honor,” he orchestrated diplomatic initiatives while the U.S. maintained pressure on the North Vietnamese through bombing raids.
Kissinger’s strategy has been considered a mixed success, as it prolonged the conflict for four years, during which thousands of American and Vietnamese soldiers were killed. Kissinger and his North Vietnamese negotiating partner, Le Duc Tho, were jointly awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, although Duc declined his share of the award.
Kissinger was secretary of state (1973–1977) under Nixon and President Gerald Ford.
He was instrumental in accelerating the early 1970s détente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In 1972, he negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, easing tensions between the two Cold War superpowers.
After leaving office, Kissinger taught, lectured and authored books, including a memoir (The White House Years), which won the National Book Award. He continued to advise U.S. presidents.
Together with former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former Senator Sam Nunn and former Secretary of State George Shultz, Kissinger called upon governments to embrace the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Despite his serious demeanor, Kissinger could make people laugh. “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full,” he once quipped.
Kissinger is survived by his wife, philanthropist Nancy Maginnes Kissinger, whom he wed in 1974; by his children, Elizabeth and David (by his first wife, Ann Fleischer, to whom he was married from 1949 to 1964); and by five grandchildren.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 3 women have experienced or will experience gender-based violence (GBV) during their lifetimes.
A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 38% of women have personally experienced online violence and 85% of women know someone who has been targeted for online violence.
GBV prevention and response is central to the U.S. government’s commitment to advancing human rights and gender equality around the world, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Geeta Rao Gupta said at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali in July.
“Gender-based violence is not just holding women and girls back, with severe consequences for their health and well-being, and economic prospects,” Rao Gupta said, noting that GBV occurs in every country and level of society. “It is holding our global economy back, and it is holding our society back.”
According to the United Nations, gender-based violence includes sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in public or in private. It can also include coercion, manipulation and threats of violence.
Intimate partner violence; child, early and forced marriage; female genital mutilation or cutting; sex trafficking; female infanticide; and “honor” killings are all forms of gender-based violence.
The WHO reported in March 2021 that incidents of intimate partner violence are highest in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, though this form of GBV remains persistently high across all regions of the world.
“Individuals who face overlapping forms of discrimination are at an increased risk of experiencing GBV, so we really try to take an intersectional approach to our work,” Katrina Fotovat, principal deputy director in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, tells ShareAmerica. “For example, women with disabilities are four times more likely than other women to experience sexual violence.”
In addition to updating the United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, the State Department works with government agencies and the private sector to implement a survivor-centered approach to GBV, which includes:
The State Department also supports efforts to educate community leaders to be advocates for eliminating gender-based violence.
“An essential part of both our foreign policy and assistance efforts is to address the structural inequities and social norms,” Fotovat says. “Our approach includes engaging men and boys in both short- and longer-term prevention efforts, and equipping youth to become advocates in their communities to challenge harmful gender norms and create a more just and peaceful society.”
And as a part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence — an annual international campaign to educate about GBV — the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues encourages everyone to be a gender champion in daily life and research local organizations to support.
“We need people from all backgrounds and all communities to stand up for gender equality,” Fotovat said. “GBV really is a human rights issue that affects all of us.”
A version of this story was originally published November 21, 2022.
In 1913, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American to earn a medical degree, opened a hospital on the Omaha Reservation. For years, she had traveled the northeastern Nebraska reservation and its surroundings, treating patients, both Native American and white.
She braved bad weather and often worked 20 hours a day. “My office hours are any and all hours of the day and night,” La Flesche Picotte once said.
The hospital, the first on Native American land that was not funded by the federal government, was a testament to her dedication as a health-care provider to her people and to those in surrounding communities.
Born on the Omaha Reservation in 1865, La Flesche Picotte chose to become a doctor after witnessing a sick Native American woman die after a white doctor refused to come to her aid.
She was admitted to the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, one of the few medical schools in the United States or elsewhere at that time that accepted women.
La Flesche Picotte graduated in 1889, a year early and first in her class, according to the U.S. National Park Service. At 24, she returned to the Omaha Reservation and served as the sole medical provider for its residents. She also worked to address public health crises affecting Native Americans, including tuberculosis and alcoholism.
“I shall always fight good and hard, even if I have to fight alone,” she said. La Flesche Picotte died in 1915. The hospital she founded is now a museum named in her honor.
The United States is mourning the death of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died November 19 at 96. The wife of the 39th U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn was first lady from 1977 to 1981 and championed causes including mental health research and equal rights.
“Rosalynn Carter exemplified hope, warmth, and a steadfast commitment to doing all she could to address many of our society’s greatest needs,” President Biden said.
Flags at U.S. government facilities will fly at half-staff in her honor from November 25 until sunset November 29, the day of her burial. Here are images from the life of this extraordinary American.
Rosalynn Carter visits a boarding school in New Delhi January 2, 1978.
From left, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, President Jimmy Carter, Margaret Trudeau and Rosalynn Carter at the White House in Washington February 21, 1977.
Rosalynn Carter testifies before the U.S. Congress February 7, 1979, on the need to improve mental health care. She was the second first lady to testify before Congress, after Eleanor Roosevelt.
Rosalynn Carter (right) and President Jimmy Carter meet with Mexican President José López Portillo and his wife, Carmen Romano de López Portillo, February 14, 1979.
Former President Carter and Rosalynn Carter were decadeslong supporters of Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that builds safe, affordable housing in more than 70 countries. Above, the two work on a Habitat project in Memphis, Tennessee, November 2, 2015.
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