By homes, I mean France and the United States.
Don't get me wrong: both countries respect human rights to a great degree (though not unreservedly: see Gitmo, torture, Abu Ghraib). Certainly more than many places on this earth.
France even has a junior minister in charge of human rights, though to listen to her boss the Foreign Minister, the Sarkozy administration apparently has doubts as to the utility of the post. Talk about lousy timing: his remarks guaranteed conflicting headlines on the very day that the UN is marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In Washington, the State Department handed out awards in the service of human rights to some of its own: the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe and the Political Section chief in Sri Lanka. Both very deserving, they were joined by a Russian human rights campaigner/journalist at the ceremony.
France was right to create a sub-cabinet level post to call attention to human rights abuses, and the junior minister has been outspoken. And the United States State Department is right to persist in its efforts to document abuse by other countries, even while the current US administration sullies the reputation of the country that used to lead the way in the field.
Here's hoping that the 61st anniversary this time next year will allow unequivocal adherence to the quest for human rights in the two countries which owe their founding to that very cause.