Human Flag for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Human Flag is a flag with the word “human” in every language which can easily be printed out as only six pages of printer paper. From every country in the world, I am collecting a story of perseverance through discrimination and oppression along with how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as law around the world helps people’s struggle. These stories (including my own) will be displayed at a local gallery or museum in Brattleboro, Vermont, United States.

Here is an example - my story and a photograph of me with the human flag. This is Human Flag: United States

In my youth, I believed people in power were trying to frame me and sabotage my life for my leftist political beliefs.  This paranoia led me into a mental hospital.  To my surprise, nobody wanted to actually hear me out and understand me.  Rather, I was quickly assessed and medicated.

The next seven years I spent institutionalized, being treated as subordinate and like a child.  They held on to my ID and money.  Moreover, they coerced me (stopping cold turkey was dangerous and they wouldn’t let me wean off of them) to take many major psych medication including antipsychotics which made me gain 50 pounds and disconnected me from my emotions (it turns out that there is deception in psychiatry - they sighted new neural growth as evidence that their medications were working when in fact the brain was responding to damage from the antipsychotic with neural growth).

Eventually I found my way to Vermont, got off a lot of my medication, and began peer support work where I used my experience in the service of others.

Human Rights are needed in the mental health system.  People are treated with passive aggressiveness, microaggressions, inequality, and assaults to dignity on a regular basis.  Article 1 - that we are born equal and imbued with dignity - could help how we are treated.  Article 3 - a right to life and security - ought to allow choice for heavy “medication.”  Article 18 - the right to freedom of thought - allows people to make their own meanings of their experience instead of labeling themselves with a “brain disease.”  

We really need Human Rights in the mental health system.  If Human Rights were law all over the world with global institutions to back it, people would benefit.

A picture of me with the six-page human flag.

That’s it! It’s an easy project to participate in if you have a story to tell.

I believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and would like to see it become international law with institutions to support it. Here are also some pictures of me in the United Nations in New York City.

Thanks for checking us out!