December 10, 2008 was the 60th anniversary of the UN’s International Declaration of Human Rights. I had been hoping to write a blog about the digital commemoration of the event, however little to no media coverage or online commemoration of the anniversary was to be found. This struck me as particularly odd considering in honour of the 60th anniversary the UNESCO designated this past year as a year of commemoration.
The lack of available media brings me to the question, how often should things be commemorated? And who gets to decide how much effort will be put into a commemoration? Private organizations often pick major milestones such as 50, 75, or 100 years to commemorate their history. However who is in charge of celebrating ideas and abstract concepts. Something like the International Declaration of Human Rights has had an impact on numerous countries and people, so should each country have their own commemoration schedule? Should the UN be in charge of organizing uniform commemoration events?
