Connecting RJ Month and Human Rights

“To me, human rights are about people wanting to belong and the basic idea that you should not have to fight every day just to be seen, respected or safe. It is the right to live your life without fear, without being pushed aside and without constantly having to prove your worth.”

Cheyenne Michel’s words spoken in a listening circle of strong women of Labrador hosted by MUN’s School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies encapsulate the importance of the interconnectedness of Human Rights and holistic restorative justice. I had been invited to bear witness to this circle with several others.    Alex Neve, CBC’s 2025 Massey Lecturer who was visiting Labrador for his fourth Massey Lecture How People Power Makes Human Rights Real sat in the circle with the women. By organizing this event, Dr. Sylvia Moore hoped to amplify the human rights concerns in Labrador through this circle that was encouraging us all to “listen with two ears.” The stories of the women moved us to recognize that what we were hearing would require us to change. Mr. Neve demonstrated his ability to listen with humility by intentionally incorporating what he heard into his lecture later that night, as well as into his final lecture in Ottawa several weeks later.

The series, which aired in November, coincides with National Restorative Justice Week (November 16-22) in Canada. RFNL has been busy all month with various events (see previous and future blog posts on this site), but it is this intersection with universal human rights that stops me as I recognize how holistic restorative justice principles and practices grounded in two-eared listening are vehicles that confront people who tend to ignore the details of human rights because of our privilege. Again and again, as I participate in talking circles, I am asked to acknowledge each person as human—worthy and interconnected — regardless of who they are, what they look like, or what they have done. As the talking piece is passed and held, the stories unfold, and I am invited to hear their words and sift them through my heart, where I learn to:

·      Listen with intention

·      Suspend judgement

·      Be open to new learning

·      Purposefully engage in (re)conciliation.

And slowly, through these practices, I begin to recognize the depth of Cheyenne’s insight: that universal human rights emerge not as distant ideals but as lived realities; realities in which all of us—including the land that sustains us—belong; do not have to fight to be seen, respected, or safe; do not live in fear; and are neither pushed aside nor required to constantly prove our worth.