Human rights in East Asia
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was implemented on 10 December 1948 by the United Nations. Therefore, we have officially witnessed 68 years of the United Nations approaching human rights issues on a global scale. The declaration was created after the end of World War II and was the first worldwide acknowledgement of the rights each individual human being is entitled to. When the UDHR was first created the United Nations was only made up of 51 member states, but after the surge of decolonisation’s, beginning in the late 1940s, the UN is now made up of 193 nations. Since 1948, many Eastern Asian countries who were formally colonised have since achieved independence and have joined the UN, therefore acknowledging the UDHR and other major human rights treaties. There is currently no human rights body governing the Eastern Asian region, however the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in 2012.
David Anthony Chimhini
In 1988 Chimhini was appointed the National Training Secretary for the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA). In 1992 he formed the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association with Reginald Matchaba-Hove, Nick Ndebele, and other activists. Chimhini was then appointed executive director of Zimrights in 1995 leading the organisation into its most successful period in its history. Under Hon leadership, ZimRights membership and profile grew rapidly. It became the biggest human rights organisation in Zimbabwe. Its membership steadily grew from 3,000 in 1995 to over 14,000 in 1998. One of the biggest demonstrations organised by ZimRights took place in Harare in 1995 under the leadership of David Chimhini, where protesters demonstrated against police brutality. In an inflammatory speech after the protest, President Mugabe labelled ZimRights "Zimlooters" and a "gangster organization".