Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the base of UCLA’s Janss Steps.
“The basic thing about a man is not his specificity, but his fundamentum,” he told the crowd of students and faculty gathered that April day in 1965. “[It’s] not the texture of his hair or the color of his skin, but his eternal dignity and worth.”
Speaking about civil rights, Dr. King evoked the struggles, throughout history, of people who have been denied their most fundamental human rights. His speech conjured the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that recognition of “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, and every person everywhere is equally entitled to them. But turn on the news at any time and it’s clear that what’s right and what’s real often don’t align. That’s why, as a world-leading research university whose mission is the “betterment of our global society,” UCLA remains committed to human rights efforts. Progress in matters this vast requires multifaceted approaches across many fields, and UCLA is well equipped to work in this manner, as demonstrated by the success of large-scale, cross-disciplinary initiatives such as the Brain Research Institute, the UCLA Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies and the International Institute.
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF STORYTELLING
One way the university is working to promote human rights is by leveraging its location and position in the storytelling capital of the world. Philanthropist, producer and social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, whose landmark gift in 2014 established the Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, notes that “A story well-told has the power to ignite positive social change.”
The Skoll Center empowers students to create socially conscious entertainment projects. Its mission aligns with that of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Global Media Center for Social Impact (GMI), which works to “transform popular culture and catalyze social change” through compelling stories. GMI provides writers in the entertainment industry with free access to leading experts on issues of social value. The purpose is to help these writers create more meaningful and realistic stories on human-rights topics, such as racial justice and LGBT/gender equality.
Another example of UCLA Optimists creating awareness about human rights issues through the transformative power of storytelling is the newly released film, The Promise, which depicts the atrocities the Armenian people suffered in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. The movie was produced by Dr. Eric Esrailian M.P.H. ’05, who co-manages the production company Survival Pictures, which was established by his mentor, the late Kirk Kerkorian. Esrailian and Kerkorian designed the venture to be an engine of philanthropic and social impact, and proceeds from The Promise, co-produced by Hollywood legend Mike Medavoy ’63, will benefit nonprofits like Elton John’s AIDS Foundation and UCLA.
In addition to his work co-managing Survival Pictures, Esrailian serves as the co-chief of the Division of Digestive Diseases at at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Working across the fields of health and entertainment, Esrailian demonstrates how one person can do more and inspire others to do more as well. In this way, he embodies the Optimist spirit.
THE OPTIMIST SPIRIT AT WORK
The Optimist spirit is also on display at The Fielding School’s WORLD Policy Analysis Center, a nonprofit policy research center that aims, on a global scale, to improve the quantity and quality of comparative data on policies affecting human health, development, well-being and equity.
From a teaching standpoint, the Paulo Freire Institute emphasizes that education should be a tool for individual and community empowerment. The institute is headed by Carlos Alberto Torres, distinguished professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Torres has devoted decades to the concepts of democracy and global citizenship education, which aim to empower learners to contribute to a more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and safe world. For his work, he was appointed the inaugural UNESCO Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education — UNESCO’s first such appointment in the University of California system.
The Optimist spirit thrives, too, in the School of Law’s International Human Rights Program, where students and faculty work with international organizations and conduct on-the-ground investigations of human rights abuses. The program’s Health and Human Rights Law Project emphasizes issues pertaining to sexuality, gender and HIV/AIDS. In April, the law school received a $20 million gift to launch a new institute that will serve as a national hub for human rights education and advocacy. The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law will train the next generation of human rights leaders and develop strategies to address crises around the globe.
At the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs’ Institute on Inequality and Democracy, scholars analyze and transform the dispossessions and divides of our times, such as income inequality. Further, the university’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles works to deepen the understanding of the issues affecting racial and ethnic equity in society.
Dr. King reminded us that “The time is always right to do right.” Throughout the years, UCLA has worked to advance human rights for people in this country and throughout the world.
It requires the will, the imagination and the courage to act.
We invite you to join us.