The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission just passed its 40th anniversary.

This is an important milestone for any institution but particularly so for our Human Rights Commission.

An anniversary offers an opportunity to contemplate its performance, assess its relevance and chart future directions.

It is time to look back and take pride in our collective achievements.

It is also time to look forward and chart a course congruent with the changing demographic, social and economic landscape.

The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission has served the people of this province with distinction. New Brunswickers from all walks of life rely on the commission to assert their fundamental rights as employees, as native people, as people with disabilities, as women, as ethnic minorities, as senior citizens, as young people, as visible and religious minorities.

As Bob Dylan's sang, "The times, they are a changing," and change we must if we are to continue our stellar record of human rights accomplishments into the 21st century.

It is time for a bold vision for human rights in New Brunswick. If we fail to embrace change and advance human rights, we will all be left more vulnerable and diminished.

The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission was founded in 1967 by provincial legislation. Subsequent decades recorded considerable progress with respect to the protection of civil and political rights.

However, those same decades recorded insignificant progress for major economic and social justice issues. Employment equity, economic, systemic, cultural and social discrimination are impediments to a level playing field.

New Brunswick's face is changing. Our demographic profile is very different from 20 years ago; it will become increasingly more varied in the future. Cultural diversity is just one part of that demographic evolution. Equally important in our demographic landscape are human rights issues related to gender, age and disability.

In order to effectively respond to the changing circumstance and natural evolution of civil society in the 21st century we must advance, widen the circle of protection offered by human rights. There are too many people who do not feel included and a large number of rights that are inadequately protected.

Women continue to be restricted by the glass ceiling and face a lack of significant progress in employment and pay equity.

Our native peoples continue to be marginalized by the lack of educational and economic opportunity.

People with disabilities continue to be denied the dignity of accessibility and integration in the workplace.

Visible minorities continue to face covert barriers to their participation in society's opportunities.

The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission has an important role to play in the 21st century. Widening the circle of protection to include social and economic rights as well as championing collective rights is essential to the success of the provincial government's self-sufficiency agenda.

Empowering New Brunswickers to be the best they can be cannot be achieved without the recognition that civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights are indivisible and inseparable.

Nor can it be achieved without embracing collective rights as a pivotal requirement for social harmony, economic prosperity, good governance and democratic participation.

At the end of the day, it is those institutions that stand guard on our individual and collective rights that are the guarantors of the principles of fairness, justice and equality in our civil society.

Constantine Passaris is chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of New Brunswick. He has served as chairman of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission, president of the Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies and advisor to the Canadian Commission on UNESCO.