Editorials

5th November 2014

Global Dignity Day

An experience never even dreamt of before was introduced to Liam Cole, Andrew Regoli, Tahlia Silcock and myself this year, when we were fortunate enough to attend Global Dignity Day and represent Gilroy. We came out of this experience with our heads up and our voices ready to spread the word!

Global Dignity Day began in 2006 and since then has travelled all around the world and gained many partners. Australia’s first Global Dignity Day was in 2013, in Sydney. Its aim is to inspire students to respect dignity in themselves and in others.

The day started off with guest speakers explaining to us what dignity was. Dignity is being worthy and respected and its five principles are:

1. Everybody has the right to lead a dignified life.

2. A dignified life means an opportunity to fulfil one’s potential, which is based on having health care, education, income and home security.

3. Dignity means the freedom to make your own choices.

4. Dignity should be the basic guide to all of our actions.

5. Dignity is interdependent with the dignity of others.

One of the speakers who really stood out for all of us, was Ron McCallum: the first totally blind man to be appointed a full professorship of any subject at an Australian University and to serve as Dean of an Australian Law Faculty. On top of this achievement, Ron was then appointed to the United Nations Committee of Persons with Disabilities in 2009. His work throughout the years has been tremendous.  Ron explained to us how dignity and human rights basically go together. When either of these is broken, a lack of dignity is shown. Ron has suffered a lot of discrimination due to his disability, which made him strive harder to speak up about dignity. “When there is no disability access, when courts say the disabled person is unfit to plead and when disabled people are just thrown into institutions; these are all examples of not recognising one’s dignity… Don’t not put people down due to their social groups or status…Respect the dignity of others.”

Throughout the day, we attended some workshops and collaborated with students from all around Sydney on dignity and examples that we had experienced where there was a loss of dignity. It was here that we realised we have all experienced a ‘lack-of-dignity act’ at least once in our lives, whether we realised this or not.

The experience was definitely an eye opener:

“Every human has dignity, which is why we need to respect everyone’s dignity. This means not to judge, discriminate or put others down… We all need role models, no matter what gender, racial background or ability.  This is an important concept to remember” ~ Liam Cole, Year 10.

“The blind speaker was really inspirational. The way that he was so determined to be successful and never let anything stop him from achieving success.” ~ Andrew Regoli, Year 10.

Overall, it was a brilliantly organised event and every one of us felt incredibly privileged to be a part of this wider community. I would recommend this experience to all Gilroy Students, and to those who may not get the opportunity…research! Find out as much as you can and spread the word!

Lauren Chapman