TAMPA BAY, Florida –
In a planned series of work sessions and stakeholder presentation-discussions, World Human Rights Network Chairman Al Bartell will be accepting a call to action in the Tampa Bay area. That call to action will be officially acknowledged during UN Human Rights Week, culminating in World Human Rights Day Dec. 10, 2022.
The first iteration of civil rights in America and the world came with then-President Harry Truman's order of desegregation for black men and women serving in the Armed Forces during 1948. That decisive action happened inside a scope of work that would establish a first-ever "universal" human rights declaration. It required the involvement of critical stakeholders of the Truman legacy and his contribution to human rights.
Many of those stakeholders involved -- now veterans in their 80’s and 90’s – retired and living in Florida – want to see what they witnessed and lived through at the end of the 20th century brought to fruition. Some say that will take a "passing of the baton" to ensure a similar magnitude in scope of human rights work gets initiated in the dawn of the 21st century.
That "passing of the baton" has found the able hands of World Human Rights Network Chairman Al Bartell, a recent Independent candidate for U.S. Senate and Governor in the state of Georgia.
Bartell established the World Human Rights Network in 2018, during the 70th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issuing an impact statement that urged "the time is right for a human rights communication to come from the American people".
An Air Force Vietnam-era war veteran, Bartell sees a monumental opportunity to impact world human rights challenges in accepting this "passing of the baton" -- a leadership mandate he wholeheartedly embraces.
"I am honored to accept this legacy call to action in the 21st century," Bartell quietly acknowledges, "from those who were called to action in the 20th century of America’s history."
The real work of "passing of the baton" will happen in a series of work sessions slated to take place during the week leading up to World Human Rights Day (Saturday, Dec. 10th). Organizers hope that the hard efforts contributed in the work sessions will lay a framework for the drafting of a 21st century world human rights plan -- one that can be brought forward during next year's 75th Anniversary of World Human Rights Day.
Bartell shares he is hoping that the final draft of the world human rights plan will not only coincide with the 75th anniversary of World Human Rights Day, but will also help mark the celebration of his fifth year as Chairman of the World Human Rights Network.
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