Susan Devoy Human Rights Day Speech: "Everyday Heroes"
10 December 2015
Multifaith Peace Vigil
Avondale Islamic Centre

Today is Human Rights Day and I would like to thank the NZ Muslim Association for hosting us in this multi-faith peace vigil this evening.

I would like to thank all of you for being with us here tonight.

On this day in 1948 the leaders of the world signed the UN Declaration of Human Rights and said Never Again.
But their hopes were in vain.

Sixty seven years later and 1 in every 122 people on earth is a refugee, an asylum seeker or without a home nation.

War, conflict and violent extremism has not gone away.

It’s easy to stand up for human rights when times are easy but it takes courage and faith to stand up for human rights when times are tough.

Those Kiwis who decide to not be a bystander and who stand up for others are everyday heroes.

This year several New Zealanders have publicly made a stand and challenged racial abuse and attacks. More New Zealanders are also backing a national campaign to increase our refugee quota – unchanged since 1987.

These aren’t famous people but they do what many of us never do: they decide to not be a bystander, they decide to stand up for a stranger whether it’s a refugee thousands of miles away or a person sitting next to them on the bus.

New Zealanders like to think of ourselves as open minded, tolerant people but we need to walk the talk. Human rights begin at home, here where we live, work and pray.

I thank each and every one of you for being here tonight because tonight we stand together in peace, in empathy and in humanity.

Tonight we stand together as Jews and Muslims, Christians and Hindus, Bahai and Buddhists.
Tonight we stand together as Kiwis.
This is how we fight for human rights in New Zealand.

**
I would like to read out to you some prayers that were written by some school children in Wellington.

Dear God.
Please help New Zealanders to be welcoming to the refugees. Please help them to be able to start a new life with good health, happiness and peace.
Dear God.
I hope the world will make peace and that New Zealand can help the refugees especially the kids. Please let them have food, water, homes and, things to play with. Please bless the refugees.

Dear God
Please help those who are weak to be strong. Please help those who are sad to be happy. Please help those who are angry to be forgiving. Please help those who are forced out of their homes to have a place called home. Please help the refugees God.

**
Human rights cannot live in a document in the United Nations thousands of miles away.
Human rights must live here at home, where we live, where we work, where we pray.
Our biggest challenge isn’t someone else.
Our biggest challenge is how we choose to live our lives and what kind of country we let New Zealand become.
Do we want NZ to become a country where it’s acceptable to post ads that say No Asians, No Indians or No Jews?
Do we want NZ to become a country where we sit silently while people are attacked in front of us?
Do we want to become a country where we don’t let people have an opinion if it’s different to ours?
New Zealanders like to think we are easy going, tolerant and open minded people.
But very often New Zealanders are far from easy going, tolerant and open minded.
Any Jewish person here tonight will be able to document the many times synagogues and graves have been attacked by New Zealanders.
Muslim people here tonight can tell you about the times mosques have been attacked by New Zealanders.
My staff and I can tell you about the hatred, abuse and venom we received from New Zealanders after a journalist twisted my words to say I wanted to ban Christmas to make non-Christians feel better.
These and many more instances show us why we need human rights and why we need to protect them. Ominously it also showed that many of us Kiwis aren’t that tolerant and peaceful after all.
**
We now live in the most ethnically diverse nation on earth and that change took place in less than a generation.
We also live in one of the most peaceful.
Whether or not that peace is going to last is up to us.

ends

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