Swiss Push in Boston exhibition for Respect for Human Rights - Exhibition at Logan

Thanks to Rita Emch at Swissinfo for this:

A year after the constitution of the United Nations' Human Rights Council (HRC), the public will be able to view the exhibition at Logan airport's international terminal. Thirteen themes each illustrated by three pictures are meant to address specific aspects of human rights.

"We were trying to find a way of explaining how essential these rights are," Swiss law professor Walter Kälin told swissinfo in Boston. For Kälin, considered by many to be the spiritual founder of the HRC, human rights are among the most significant advances of modern civilisation.

"But they are under pressure," he added. "On one side from terrorists, and on the other from governments who consider that to fight terrorism they can ignore these fundamental rights." Kälin hopes the exhibition will help people deal with growing cynicism towards human rights. "If we can make people realise the relevance of human rights for themselves and others, we will have reached our goal," he said.

For Switzerland's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Blaise Godet, it is not just in the interest of states to ensure that human rights are respected, but also a duty. Speaking at the official opening of the exhibition on Monday, he said that to reach that goal, nations must give more support to the HRC and forget the meanderings of its discredited predecessor, the Human Rights Commission.