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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| February 23, 2004 |
Respecting Human Rights in Our Everyday Life – Bernardita Aravena from Amnesty International Chile |
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| Ms. Bernardita Aravena |
Ms. Bernardita Aravena joined an exciting segment of our journey as we sailed through the glaciers and fjords in Patagonia from Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city inhabited by humankind, to Valparaiso, Chile. Bernardita came onboard to represent Amnesty International Chile and share their messages of espect for human rights with Peace Boat participants. In addition to her work as human rights trainer for Amnesty International Chile, she also works as a part-time kindergarten teacher and counselor for women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence. Through all of these activities, Bernadita has one goal she aspires to achieve: educate people to respect human rights and act accordingly in our everyday lives.
During her short stay, she offered two lectures and workshops to share her belief that world peace can only be achieved when human rights are respected at global and local levels.
In the lectures, Bernardita, a Chilean national, talked about her experience coming of age during the most turbulent period of Chilean contemporary history - life under the government of President Salvador Allende and 17 years of military dictatorship by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. In October 1970, Allende became the first popularly elected socialist president in the world. Soon after Allende assumed presidency, he faced an opposition Congress and an unfriendly US government, as well as right-wing extremists who even advocated his overthrow by violent means. A plummeting economy - widely thought to be caused partially by deliberate attempts at destabilization by opposition forces including the CIA- only served to aggravate the situation. On September 11, 1973, the turning point of Chilean history, Allende's government was overthrown by a coup d'etat led by General Pinochet, which resulted in Allende's death in the government palace La Moneda. After the incident, Pinochet's junta lasted from 1973 to 1989, period in which the guarantee of a respect for human rights was practically nonexistent. Various forms of serious human rights violations including torture and disappearances committed by Pinochet's government created "culture of fear," which ruled Chile during the period.
The legacy of Pinochet's rule still lives in Chile today. The objective of Bernardita's organization, Amnesty International Chile, is to re-educate the people to liberate themselves from that culture of fear.
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| Bernardita talking cheerfully in human rights workshop |
In addition to the lectures she gave onboard, Bernardita also offered two successive human rights workshops with an aim to familiarize the participants with the often seemingly remote concept of "human rights." Toward that end, she believes that workshops have to be done in simple ways. Through these workshops, which she also gives to children, Bernardita hopes that they will learn that human rights exist in everybody's life and that when they are violated, we all have every right to stand up in order to have them respected.
For more information about Amnesty International, go – www.amnistia.cl |
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