London

As the world prepares to celebrate Human Rights Day — and the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — this Monday 10 December, we are happy to share some fun ways to celebrate.

We are excited to announce that 30 landmarks across the globe will shine blue in honor of Human Rights Day. The London Eye and Somerset House will go #Blue4HumanRights. We invite you to visit our HRW.org/HumanRightsDay webpage, which has been translated into French, Spanish, Arabic, German, and Japanese.

In addition, here are ways you can help Human Rights Watch commemorate the day. Please share widely.

Actions for today:

• Wear blue on Monday and post selfies and group photos with staff, friends, and networks on social media, or in front of a building that is going blue. Tag your photo #Blue4HumanRights. Meet us at 7pm at Radio Rooftop Bar to join in!
• Share our Human Rights Day landing page HRW.org/blue that provides ways for the general public to engage with us on Human Rights Day.  
• Update your profile photo on Facebook for Human Rights Day. The frame is available in 8 languages.
• Use the Human Rights Day social media toolkit to easily post your own messages all day.
• Take a recording of yourself reading your favorite article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You can post the recordings on your own social media feeds, and tag HRW (@humanrightswatch on Facebook and Instagram, @hrw on Twitter) and the following hashtags: #HumanRightsDay #StandUp4HumanRights

A flag (picture) to represent human rights has been designed by Ai Wei Wei and the unveiling of the flag today will kickstart a year of celebration around human rights in the UK. In June 2019 schools, organisations and individuals from across the country will be invited to ‘fly the flag’ to show their support for human rights. Human Rights Watch is a founding member of a coalition of organisations, including theatres and other human rights organisations, leading this effort. David Mepham played a key role in shaping this campaign and Steph Hancock and Ben Ward are continuing his legacy by representing Human Rights Watch within the coalition. More details to follow!

Thank you and Happy Human Rights Day from all at Human Rights Watch!

His track record of applying sharp wits to pressure for change, along with his OBE for services to human rights, boiled down to a fact: Mepham was one who cared.

“I do not believe that human rights are a magic bullet that can solve all the world’s problems.” These were some of the final words written by David Mepham before his death from cancer, aged 50, this week. They are perhaps unexpected from someone awarded an OBE for services to human rights. But they reflect an honesty and pragmatism for which Mepham was well known, and which became a hallmark of his work in the human rights movement.

Mepham was no purist. He knew there is no such thing as a perfect world, and rather than preach lofty ideals, he challenged himself to work out how terrible crises could be made a little less awful. Coupled with his shrewd political savvy, it proved an incredibly effective tool for pressure – squeezing the UK government on everything from the plight of the Rohingya to arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and for change – such as persuading the Foreign Office to endorse a global treaty protecting schools from military use and attack.

And Mepham was a man in a hurry for change. He did everything at lightning speed. Walking to meetings, colleagues would struggle to match his pace. In phone calls, he’d talk so fast people would struggle to keep up. He’d read entire books in a single day, and complex briefing papers in minutes. Computers were a constant frustration, because his mind always worked faster than he could type.