Voices of Justice
How Noah Bardach ’98 and Rebecca Cannara ’98 learned the language of human rights.
Rebecca Cannara ’98 first met Noah Bardach ’98 in front of the Reed Library. “Within two months, we knew we wanted to get married,” Rebecca says. The enormity of that realization was undeniable—and unnerving. “I’m not ready to have met you yet,” she told Noah.
In the three decades following that fateful encounter, Noah and Rebecca helped create the Universal Human Rights Initiative (UHRI), a nonprofit group that works with the United Nations and academic institutions to strengthen access to information about human rights. Founded in 2016 by Noah and Hope Rieser Farley (the organization's first executive director), UHRI reflects Noah and Rebecca’s longstanding fascination with communication, which dates back to their days at Reed.
“I think this is an often-heard critique of higher education: That it’s inward looking, the ivory tower, sealed off from what’s happening in society,” Noah told me. “For better or worse, Reed was a place where we could just dedicate ourselves to our developing intellects.”
An idea of how to translate values into action subsequently occurred to Noah when he looked up the Nigerian translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the United Nations’ website—only to realize that there was no way to listen to the translation online.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document in the world…but if you’re one of the 900 million-plus people who are illiterate, you are locked out of this critical information,” Noah told me. That realization led not only to the creation of the UHRI—with Noah as chief technology officer—but to the UDHR Audio/Video Project, which features native speakers reading over 300 translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (sent to schools and nonprofit organizations around the world).
“My dream is that UHRI can increase people’s openness to getting more curious about and less distant from their neighbors and ultimately get more involved in their local community,” Rebecca says. “We know from intergroup research that the more connected we stay, the less polarized we will be, and the more we will see ourselves in each other.”
In the future, UHRI will continue that work without the couple who molded much of its mission. Rebecca, who is currently the organization's executive director, plans to step back to focus on her role as regional director of social services at the nonprofit LifeSTEPS—and, sadly, Noah passed away from ALS while this article was being written.
“I think we need to resist that creeping feeling of helplessness and continue to pour our energy into the initiatives we have created to date,” he told me last July. He was speaking to the present moment—and to the moments yet to come.