Celebrating Human Rights Month

December is Universal Human Rights Month. This year, December 10th marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a landmark declaration proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948. The document enshrines the basic rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being-- regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality, or any other status.

The UDHR has been translated into more than 500 languages, making it the most translated document in the world. In honor of the UDHR, December 10th was made International Human Rights Day.

Our mission at ASME is to advance engineering for the benefit of humanity. This means working together to make the world better for all, including those outside the U.S. Everyone deserves the right to live a full healthy and happy life, and our work as engineers is essential to reaching this goal.

Here are a few recent examples of how engineering can improve lives:

• A water filtration solution for members of the Navajo Nation, many of whom still have limited access to reliable sources of clean drinking water.
• Magnetic beads that can quickly identify harmful bacteria in food such as salmonella and e. coli, a process that normally takes days or weeks.
• A new kind of solar cell that would make producing solar panels faster and more accessible.
• A handheld device that can harvest water from the air even in desert conditions, which could help the more than 900 million people who live in areas impacted by water scarcity.

I am looking forward to the incredible innovations and ideas engineers will continue to develop as we move toward a future where everyone has access to the same inalienable human rights.

With regards,

Thomas Costabile, P.E.
ASME Executive Director/CEO