In the evening of December 14, 2025, the Universal Peace Federation in The Netherlands (UPF NL) organized an Observance of the UN Human Rights Day at the Parish house of the Antonius van Padua Church in the city of Nijmegen.
The program consisted of the following components: introduction to the 2025 theme of the UN HR Day, 4 presentations, musical performances, a Dialogue Peace Meal and concluding remarks.
MC Joseph Salaris introduced the HR Day theme for 2025, which is as follows.
2025 Theme – Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials (from the UN website)
In this period of turbulence and unpredictability, where many feel a growing sense of insecurity, disaffection and alienation, the theme of Human Rights Day is to reaffirm the values of human rights and show that they remain a winning proposition for humanity.
Through this campaign, we aim to re-engage people with human rights by showing how they shape our daily lives, often in ways we may not always notice. Too often taken for granted or seen as abstract ideas, human rights are the essentials we rely on every day.
By bridging the gap between human rights principles and everyday experiences, we aim to spark awareness, inspire confidence and encourage collective action.
The campaign emphasizes that human rights are positive, essential and attainable.
Next Mr. Hans Noot, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HWRF) in The Netherlands and co-Founder of the Gerard Noodt Foundation for Freedom of Religion and Belief, gave an interactive presentation about the relation between the Human Rights Day and Christmas.
Through examples in his presentation and the questions he asked, we became aware that many important things in our life are invisible. However, their effects are visible, if you look for example at electricity, television waves, freedom, love, safety and fairness. Invisible religious beliefs work quietly to shape our conscience and consciousness for Human Rights. When these values are missing, you can experience this somehow. Mr. Noot’s presentation made us more aware about the invisible reality of values and “spirit” behind Human Rights. These translate values into ways of life. Faith protects and lift people up (umbrella, parasol), believers and non-believers. We are all created in God’s image and are asked to love one another.
Human Rights are connected to religious values and, in this way, very much connected to Christmas. It is all about the Love of God. One way to express that love is the ability to bring sacrifices for the wellbeing of our fellow men and women.
The following speaker was Mr. Shantha Dalugamage, founder of Mission Lanka, who spoke about his experiences in relation to Human Rights. He is from Sri Lanka and came as a refugee to the Netherlands in 2011. Through his foundation, he is committed to improving the lives of all people in Sri Lanka, regardless of their religion, background, or race.
He started by sharing some facts about Sri Lanka, the country where he was born. There are different religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, whose followers sometimes cooperate, but unfortunately are also involved in serious conflicts. Shantha grew up in times of war, where he saw awful things like the killing of his father and acts of burning people. Feelings of anger and revenge overwhelmed him but, in the end, he chose the way of reconciliation.
Mr. Dalugamage had to leave Sri Lanka and ended up as a refugee in Bangkok, where he was able to establish two schools in the refugee camp. From Thailand, he got the opportunity to come to The Netherlands. Here he has become active in activities in The Netherlands and abroad to promote Human Rights, education, improving the environment and fighting poverty.
After a musical performance by Hans Campman and Eleanor Flowers of UPF Netherlands, Mr. Kadhir, a representative of ZWWA (Zivilisation, Weisheit, Wohltätigkeit, Aufschwuing e.V.), announced the video message of Dr. Abdulcabbar Boran, the Founder of this Sufi movement from Turkey. In the first part of his presentation, a general introduction was given of the movement and, next, Dr. Boran elaborated on human rights and our responsibility.
All religions have the same source and, as a goal, to find happiness. One of ZWWA’s aims is to make the universe happy. Love and happiness are central for the Creator. The holy books (Thora, Bible and Koran) call for love. You become a human being by love. We should be envoys of love and guides to live properly, as well as being helpful and useful for others, including our enemies.
Humans have rights and duties. We should not do evil. The 10 Commandments are much more than a Human Rights Declaration, as these call on us to uphold the commandments of Allah. We need to fulfil the covenant with God. From a servant of Satan, we should become a servant of God, and do the Will of Allah. This leads to happiness. You have to become happy yourself, in order to be able to share this with others. Practice the Golden Rule. If you love others, in the end you will be loved as well. Allah’s justice goes further than the material world, it extends to the spirit world. His justice is absolute in both realms.
The last speaker was Willem Koetsier, President of UPF Netherlands, who lamented that humankind has existed for a long time with a deep desire for peace, but there is still no world peace. However, there are signs, such as the Schuman Declaration 75 years ago, which is seen as the beginning of cooperation between the countries in Europe after WWII for the benefit of the peoples and, in the mind of Schuman, for the Glory of God. Schuman, Adenauer, Monnet and De Gasperi were statesmen, inspired by Christian beliefs, who wanted to stop wars and acts of revenge, but instead promoted the ideas of forgiveness, reconciliation and working together for peace in Europe. The first step was to share raw materials like coal and steel for the benefit of the wellbeing of the people. This approach is still valid nowadays and deserves to be proclaimed to change the mind of warmongers.
The Creator has given us guidelines for how to live properly (The Ten and Two Commandments). Since the Fall of Man, God has been working to get people back on the right track and bring peace by getting rid of our selfishness, as well as revenge feelings, and start to live for the sake of the wellbeing of others based on universal values. The Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 is an expression of these values.
However human rights, formulated by people living in blessed circumstances can become a bone of contention if there is no prospect of fulfilling them for people in bad circumstances. This leads to them becoming disappointed, angry, and jealous, and often opens the path to violence. The story of Cain and Abel reflects this situation. These “Cain-type” feelings are fertile ground for evil powers to promote conflicts and war. In the story of Jacob and Esau, we see that Jacob succeeds in pacifying his brother, particularly by sharing his blessings with Esau. In striving for peace, the Abel figure needs to become a Jacob to help the Cain figure Esau come closer to the Creator. The relatively good people need to win the hearts of the people with evil intentions. It looks like Schuman and his colleagues were aware of this lesson from the Bible, which is still valid for the time we are now living in.
At the Dialogue Peace Meal, the participants of the meeting offered their reflections about what they had heard, which were summarized in the concluding remarks by Hans Campman.
At the end of this event, two participants were recognized as Ambassadors for Peace for their contributions for a better world in their communities and were appointed Ambassadors for Peace.