Q: What is the mission of Eleanor Lives!?
A: The mission of Eleanor Lives! is to carry on the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt – a “plan for humanity” to emerge as an international community built upon enforceable human rights.
Q: Why the change in name from Unite for Rights to Eleanor Lives!
A: Eleanor Roosevelt’s plan for humanity, based upon an International Bill of Rights, has always been at the core of our organization. We do not claim to have had an epiphany, we are carrying out her legacy. Our renaming of the organization to Eleanor Lives! reflects that we want her work to live on, and that we want to appeal to individuals, nonprofits and businesses to collaborate together to that end.
Q: How does Eleanor Lives! carry out its mission?
A: Eleanor Lives! brings people, nonprofits and businesses together to write the rules for those who govern built upon an International Bill of Rights.
Q: What program does Eleanor Lives! have to carry out its mission?
A: Eleanor Lives! has four program pieces to implement its mission – they are “a plan for humanity”:
One, a “Lights for Rights” campaign, which asks individuals, nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses to become lights on a spinning globe showing that they support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its 75th Anniversary. White for individuals; green for nonprofits and blue for businesses. This is how we focus together. Becoming a light does not show support for particular wording of an International Bill of Rights, only support for the UDHR, including Article 28 of the UDHR, which calls for a future document that will make the rights in the UDHR enforceable in the courts of all countries.
Two, a “Drafting Through Dialogue” process through which an Advisory Board and Drafters, anyone who would like to suggest wording to add, or to remove, from the draft International Bill of Rights, is encouraged to do so by putting their comments on the Eleanor Lives! website. Every suggestion is responded to, also on the website. In this way, the development of the document, including a new booklet Version each year, is completly transparent.
Three, “Educational Curriculum” including lesson plans, articles, books, music and movies, to teach all of humanity, particularly students of all ages in all countries, about the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt, and others, embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Treaties and Conventions, which is now combining into an International Bill of Rights, enforceable in the courts of all countries.
Four, its “2048 Project” which organizes the product of the “Lights for Rights” campaign and the “Drafting Through Dialogue” process, and in 2023, the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration, places before the Human Rights Council, the International Law Commission, and the United Nations General Assembly, an International Bill of Rights which includes a system of Regional Courts and an International Court of Human Rights that can be in operation by the year 2048, the 100th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Q: How Can I Donate to Support the Work of Eleanor Lives?
A: You can click on the DONATE button to easily make a donation by credit card:
If you would like to send a check, you can send it to the address on our Contact page.
If you would like to include Eleanor Lives! in your will so she does indeed live on, call our CEO, Kirk Boyd, at 415 690 – 6687.
All donations are fully tax deductable and a letter is sent for every donation made so that the funder has proof of a tax deductible contribution.
Q: How does the “Lights for Rights” campaign work?
A: When individuals, nonprofits or for-profits sign on the Eleanor Lives website (or through the mail or some other written means) to support the UDHR on its 75th anniversary. a spark of light ignites on the spinning globe in the country where they are. Unless they choose to be anonymous, the name of the individual, nonprofit or business is also listed, along with their country and the flag of their country, on the website. The logos for the nonprofits or businesses are also placed on the logo stream on the home page.
Q: How does the “Drafting Through Dialogue” process work?
A: All suggestions for changes to wording of the draft International Bill of Rights document that are made by the Advisory Board, or Drafters, which includes any individual, nonprofit, business, or government, are reviewed and responded to on the Eleanor Lives! website. All comments are given equal weight. It is the weight of comment, not the position of the person, nonprofit, business or government, that matters. Beauty is the standard of review, not what is acceptable to present leaders or governments. Suggestions are collected throughout the year, then a new version of the draft International Bill of Rights is published in many languages in April of each year.
Q: How does the the “Drafting Through Dialogue” process stay transparent?
A: No changes are made to the Draft International Bill of Rights unless a comment is posted on the website by an Advisory Board member or any other person, nonprofit, for-profit or government. All comments that result in a change being made to the draft International Bill of Rights, be it punctuation, or substantive wording, are explained with a statement on the website. The name of the individual, nonprofit or for-profit who makes the suggestion leading to the change is noted with appreciation on the website when any change is made due to a suggestion. A token of appreciation, between 10 and 100 Euros, is paid for any suggestion that results in a change to the wording of the draft document.
Q: What can I do to help?
A: Sign! Become “light for rights”! Join an international movement for enforceable human rights. Don’t just talk about how great rights are, help make them enforceable in courts and real in our daily lives. Becoming a light does not mean that you support a particular list of rights, only that you support the principle that there are some rights that are shared by all people, that they were embodied in the UDHR, and you would like there to be an international dialogue about how the rights in the UDHR can become enforceable. Your simple signature is the most important thing that you can do because it’s an exercise of power. It’s getting behind making rights enforceable, which is different from many documents that are just declarations.
Q: What is the ultimate goal of Eleanor Lives?
A: Following the plan of Eleanor, Rene Cassin, John Humphrey and others, humanity is emerging from warring nation states to peace and prosperity within an international community built upon an International Bill of Rights. Given people as they are, Eleanor Lives! revives and furthers the work since the end of WWII so that this transition can take place. Eleanor Lives! does not change the world. EL facilitates the change that the world is making away from warring nation states to an international community. Nation states do not go away, nor should they. People and businesses will thrive within those nations, embracing diversity, but ensuring some fundamental rights for all, regardless of country, and that authoritarians can never remove those rights.
Q. Isn’t it better to spend time and resources to help people with immediate needs such as giving a starving person something to eat, or a child the medicine they need?
A. Yes, it is better! However, the immediate and the long term are not mutually exclusive. There is a good story that highlights this answer:
- There was a town by a river and one day bodies started floating down the river, some injured and many of them dead. The people in the town were caring and immediately started pulling bodies out of the water. The bodies kept coming so they started building facilities by the river so they could help more people effectively. One day, as a young woman was helping others to pull a body out of the water, she looked up and said “we should continue to pull these bodies out of the water, but shouldn’t somebody go take a look upstream.”
Eleanor Lives is for the millions internationally who are ready to go upstream. EL only seeks 1% of individuals, organizations and businesses to become lights – those who have the imagination and courage to go upstream. Eleanor Lives supports 99% of all energy and money to going to immediate needs to get the bodies out of the river of violence, discrimination and war, and to have 1% go for the trek upstream to implement an International Bill of Rights which will dramatically reduce the flow of bodies downstream.
Thank you for taking the trek with us.
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