Ever since the State Department first instituted the Women of Courage Awards in 2007, I’ve been writing stories about the ladies who have been selected for the awards as well as some of the nominees. And I must say, their stories never fail to awe and humble me. Many of these women have endured harassment, jail and worse, and yet they remain over many years dedicated and passionate about their causes.

Many of us will never have to face the kinds of obstacles these women face to enjoy freedom, nor will we have to fight for our human rights. In fact, an amazing number of people in free societies would find it difficult to name even a few of the 30 human rights described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – after all, it’s not a topic taught in most schools.

The human rights activists I heard speak at the 2010 Washington Human Rights Summit, however, all warned of the dangers of ignorance. At the summit, Maria Leissner, Sweden’s Ambassador for Democracy, said “democracy depends on human rights to evolve” but that there’s been a “backlash against freedom” in the last few years around the world. “This is about power,” she said.

It takes courage to push back against the powerful who would deprive people of their human rights – but it doesn’t take courage of superhero portions. Thanks to my work, I’ve run across a lot of ordinary citizens who are doing their bit to protect human rights. Nazanin Boniadi, for example, found time from her busy career to educate people about human rights. “Knowledge is power,” she told me in an interview, “and the more people who know their rights, the more people who can defend those rights.” Last year she and a group of Iranian expatriates put together the “United for Neda” video on YouTube to support freedom in Iran.

You don’t have to be a beautiful actress to share the message about human rights and democracy. The Democracy Video Challenge contest invites people from all around the world to join in the process of spreading the word about what democracy means. My favorite winner from 2009 was the video by Lukasz Szozda of Poland.

But some of the most amazing human rights activists – although they probably don’t think of themselves that way – were the volunteers I talked to at the Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (ASTT) in Baltimore and Washington. They had the guts to donate at least a little of their time to help people who have suffered the worst of human rights abuses. Having heard some of the horrifying stories of the torture survivors, I wondered how the volunteers coped with all the tragedy they encountered. One volunteer – Prisca Okeahialam of Nigeria – told me: “I would tell people not to be daunted by what they see,” she said. “I look at where I want to see the person at the end of the day. And that’s what gives me the strength to do what I do.”