Two Celebrations this Weekend to Commemorate Human Rights Day

This weekend marks the 75^th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To commemorate the occasion, there will be two celebrations in Amherst.

The local chapter of Amnesty International is hosting an event from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, December 9 in the Woodbury Room at the Jones Library. The event will honor the chapter’s late leader, Martha Spiegelman, who died of pancreatic cancer on November 10. In 2000, Spiegelman, with her husband Irwin and others in the Northeast, founded the Thomas Paine Friends group to call attention to injustice and human rights issues. As a leader of Amnesty International Chapter 128, Spiegelman organized marches, protests for gun control, support for peaceful solutions to war, letter writing campaigns for prisoners of conscience, weekly tabling at the Farmers’ Market for Amnesty International, and financial support for like-minded organizations, such as the Media Education Foundation.

Spiegelman was a native of New York City who taught chemistry and biology at Smith College. The Amherst Chapter of Amnesty International was founded in 1978 by two seniors at Amherst College. It organizes several activities a year. In addition to the Human Rights Day program, the group sponsors the art exhibit by Amherst Regional Middle school students inspired by the 30 articles in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights that is on display at the Jones Library for the month of December.

On Sunday, December 10, the Human Rights Commission, the Business Improvement District, and the Amherst Chamber of Commerce are celebrating “75 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” at 5 p.m. at the Bangs Center. The event “celebrates the rights that all are entitled to as human beings, regardless of race, color, religion, sexual identity, ability, language, or other status.