Universal Declaration of Human Rights

12 Key excerpts on "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Dignity and Human Rights

  • Stephan P. Leher(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  On December 10, 1948, the international community made a commitment to upholding dignity and justice for all of us. The UDHR is generally agreed to be “the foundation of international human rights law.” 2 On Human Rights Day in 2008 the UN proudly asserted that, adopted in 1948, the UDHR has inspired a rich body of legally binding international human rights treaties … It represents the universal recognition that basic rights and fundamental freedoms are inherent to all human beings, inalienable and equally applicable to everyone, and that every one of us is 22 The Individual Is the Subject of Human Rights Law born free and equal in dignity and rights. Whatever our nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status, the international community on December 10, 1948, made a commitment to upholding dignity and justice for all of us. 3 This statement by the UN expresses the nucleus of the UDHR, together with an assessment of the importance of this commitment for the future development of Human Rights law. The Drafting Process of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights I am grateful to the UN for putting online the documents, protocols and reports that testify to the drafting process of the UDHR. 4 It is important that every citizen of the world have free access to the history of the making of this Declara -tion. The assessment of the claims set out by the UDHR by every single indi-vidual living on this earth now and in the future determines the degree of the social realization of the Declaration. When describing the drafting process of the UDHR, I will refer to the documents as numbered by the UN’s Dag Hammar -skjöld Library. The Human Rights Commission was established in June 1946 by the Eco -nomic and Social Council of the UN.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Morals, Rights and Practice in the Human Services

  Effective and Fair Decision-Making in Health, Social Care and Criminal Justice

  • Tony Ward, Marie Connolly(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  Effectively this meant including positive as well as negative rights and the stipulation that govern-ments were required to provide services and goods to their citizens as opposed to simply ensuring they were not subject to arbitrary violence or unjustified restrictions of liberty. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights consists of a preamble assert-ing the dignity of human beings followed by 30 articles outlining specific rights to objects such as freedom from torture, security of the person, a fair trial and due process, property ownership, freedom to and from discrimination, freedom to marry, access to work, religious freedom, and so on. The first 21 articles of the UDHR are concerned primarily with civil and political rights and in this respect resemble bills of rights developed during the Enlightenment and even earlier periods of history. Examples of this type of rights include the right to own property (article 17.1), freedom from discrimination (articles 2, 7), opportunities to vote in periodic elections (article 21.3), freedom of assembly UNDERSTANDING HUMAN RIGHTS / 21 and association (article 20), freedom of movement and residence (article 13), and freedom of thought, religion and conscience (article 18). In contrast, articles 22 to 27 outline entitlements to social, cultural and economic benefits, such as an adequate standard of living (article 25), reasonable health care (article 25), social security (article 22), a just wage for workers (article 23.3), special care for children and mothers (article 25.1), rest and leisure (article 24), and at least an elementary education (article 26). The UDHR was followed by two international covenants in 1966 (the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) that provided more detail on the various articles outlined in the original UN declaration (Freeman 2002; Nickel 2007).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Human Rights in Thick and Thin Societies

  Universality without Uniformity

  • Seth D. Kaplan(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  2 The UDHR: Flexible Universalism There was once a much broader consensus on human rights and the need for a flexible yet universal approach. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a product of extensive negotiations, passed the United Nations with no dissensions in 1948, and it has legitimacy worldwide because it embodied such an approach. A number of major international treaties signed in the years since have also achieved broad support for similar reasons. The UDHR is by far the single most important human rights document, a “constitution” for the movement, an “international bill of rights for governments,” 1 and an independent moral beacon for world affairs. 2 It is the foundation for much of the post-1945 codification of human rights, many international treaties are based on the Declaration, and many state consti- tutions make use of it in some form. 3 Yet, the human rights field is today often mired in controversy, and advocates risk losing support in many parts of the world. What happened? For many, “the gross inflation in the number of human rights treaties and nonbinding international instruments adopted by international organizations” 4 over the last several decades “cheapens the purpose” and “makes it far more 1 Mary Ann Glendon and Elliott Abrams, “Reflections on the UDHR,” First Things 82 (April 1998), www.firstthings.com/article/1998/04/002-reflections-on-the-udhr. 2 Johannes Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 20. 3 Hurst Hannum, “The Status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in National and International Law,” Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 25, no.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  International Economic Actors and Human Rights

  • Adam McBeth(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Human rights in international law 13 Rather, the approach is to enumerate entitlements for every human being which derive from the inherent dignity of each of them, and to assume a correlative imperative on society as a whole to secure and deliver those entitlements. The pre- amble to the UDHR reinforces the collective, society-wide nature of human rights and corresponding obligations by addressing responsibility for fulfilment of the Declaration to ‘every individual and every organ of society’, rather than exclusively to States or the United Nations. The State was the obvious practical focus for providing the framework for securing the human rights set out in the UDHR, particularly in terms of legislating to protect the rights, providing a recourse avenue and remedies for those who claimed their rights had been violated, imposing punishments on violators, and implementing a general framework of enforcement. For these reasons, the next phase in the project for the legal protection of human rights within the United Nations was to elaborate specific obligations for States, which would be legally binding and enforceable, and to which States would need to give their explicit consent. That phase resulted in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Eco- nomic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). However, the strong focus on the State in subsequent efforts to secure the rights declared in the UDHR should be viewed as a practical matter for the implementation of the UDHR rights; it should not distract one from the character of the UDHR as an explicit acknow- ledgement of the existence, within the system of international law overseen by the nascent United Nations, of pre-existing human rights that accrue to every human being and derive from human dignity.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Harvard Sampler

  Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century

  • Jennifer M. Shephard, Stephen Michael Kosslyn, Evelynn Maxine Hammonds, Jennifer M. Shephard, Stephen M. Kosslyn, Evelynn M. Hammonds(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Harvard University Press

    (Publisher)

  Reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights The UDHR is a reaction to many of the evils humankind has experi-enced in history, not merely the Second World War and the Holo-caust, but also, for instance, the concerns expressed by the predecessor movements mentioned above. The document also reflects an eagerness to have a broadly acceptable international bill of rights. The preamble talks about “inherent dignity” and “worth” of human beings as well as of “equal and inalienable rights,” but that is as far as its philosophical or religious commitments go. The preamble reiterates the link be-tween justice and peace that had been acknowledged in 1919 but insuf-ficiently implemented. The preamble ends by referring to the list of

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

  A Legal Resource Guide

  • Scott Leckie, Anne Gallagher, Scott Leckie, Anne Gallagher(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • University of Pennsylvania Press

    (Publisher)

  B. DECLARATIONS Chapter 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaf W rmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, Now, therefore, the General Assembly, Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Emerging Areas of Human Rights in the 21st Century

  The Role of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • Marco Odello, Sofia Cavandoli(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  3 The contribution of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the promotion and protection of democracy in international law Richard Burchill and Sofia Cavandoli

  3.1  Introduction

  This chapter puts forth the proposition that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) holds an important place with regard to the promotion and protection of democracy in international law. Our argument is that the UDHR serves as a foundation for understanding the meaning, content and parameters of democracy as an international legal principle. Commentators have attempted to claim that the adoption of the UDHR in 1948 gave rise at that time to an international right to democratic governance.1 Clearly, the reality of the international system from 1948 showed that such a right was non-existent as international law and took minimal notice of the structures or processes of government and governance. International law’s attention to governance took a major turn with the end of the Cold War. In both practice and rhetoric, international law was utilised to engage in the promotion and protection of democracy. While there has been widespread evidence of support expressed for democracy in both international law and relations, determining the meaning of what is at stake remains a critical issue to be addressed.

  We will assert that the UDHR provides substantial guidance for defining democracy in international law as it contains the core elements of a definition of democracy that covers procedures, substance and a normative basis. The UDHR does not establish a detailed framework for democracy as democratic practices will vary and a degree of pluralism in understanding democracy is necessary. What the UDHR does provide is the parameters for understanding what constitutes democracy in international law as well as normative support for the pursuit of more effective democratic systems. As the UDHR is not a legally binding document its contribution to the promotion and protection of democracy in international law does not come in the form of legal obligations but rather as normative support that has widespread acceptance. This chapter will begin with a brief discussion of international law and the promotion and protection of democracy in order to highlight the definitional issues that are at stake. The next section will discuss the drafting of the UDHR focussing on debates concerning the nature of government and governance before undertaking an assessment as to how the final version of the UDHR supports an understanding of democracy. The adoption of the UDHR was a revolutionary development in international law as it marked the first significant effort to restrain the exercise of government by reference to the promotion and protection of human interests over state interests. The development of an international law of democracy in the post-Cold War period has also marked a major development in the nature of international law and relations. In both cases these developments can be seen as efforts ‘to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’,2

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Human Rights

  The Essential Reference

  • Carol Devine, Carol R. Hansen, Hilary Poole, Ralph Wilde(Authors)
  • 1999(Publication Date)
  • Greenwood

    (Publisher)

  PART TWO The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt holds a poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Lake Success, New York, November 1949 (UN Photo). This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER TWO An Overview of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Introduction T he creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 marked the foundation of the modern human rights movement. It took the notion of rights and articulated it on the international level, as applicable to all. Fifty years later, the human rights movement is a truly global phenomenon, as individuals around the world cite the declaration and its rights as a way of describing their needs. This chapter evaluates the declaration. It describes the historical context in which it was created, and then it examines the drafting process. Finally it examines the decla- ration itself—what it stands for, what its status is, how it works, how it views human rights promotion, and how it can claim to be universal. The following chapter evalu- ates each of the declaration's thirty articles in turn—what they mean, what the drafters' intentions were, how they have been elaborated on in subsequent instruments, and what issues they speak to today. Chapter Two: An Overview of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights • 59 The Historical Background of the Declaration I n many ways the declaration and the human rights movement that followed from it came out ofthe worldwide revulsion at the atrocities that were committed during World War II. The declaration served as a direct rebuttal of the racist and fascist ide- ologies that had "disregard and contempt for human rights" at their root and led to "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind" (UDHR pream- ble).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Children's Rights Education in Diverse Classrooms

  Pedagogy, Principles and Practice

  • Lee Jerome, Hugh Starkey(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  Human rights stem from a utopian or hopeful vision of a free, just and peaceful world. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) takes as its premise that this vision of an ideal and harmonious world could exist only if everybody understands and respects the minimum standards of entitlement and expectation set out in the preamble and articles of the UDHR (1948). Schools and other places of formal education have a key role to play in transmitting and fostering understandings of human rights. Although understandings will be influenced by context, the core principles of equality of rights and equality of entitlement to dignity and respect should be constant. 18 Children’s Rights Education in Diverse Classrooms To achieve this, HRE aims to ensure that teachers, parents and students anywhere in the world will be aware of and understand that human rights stem from an international consensus, expressed originally in the UN Charter and repeated and developed in the UDHR. This seminal milestone Declaration offers a vision of ‘freedom, justice and peace in the world’ that can be realized, by ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family’. We examined some of the implications of this in Chapter 1. What we will develop here is the fact that children are ‘members of the human family’ and that consequently they are entitled equally with other, older, family members to respect of their dignity and recognition that their rights are not conditional. Human beings, in a human rights perspective, do not have to earn their rights. They do not have to behave well in order to be entitled to them. They do not have to show maturity or common sense. That said, the benefits of human rights, such as equality, health, education, shelter, protection from harm, are rarely fully realized without a struggle.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Habeas Corpus in International Law

  • Brian R. Farrell(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  1, 113th mtg. of Third Comm., at 242, U.N. Doc. A/C.3/SR.113 (Oct. 26, 1948). 116 Ibid. 117 Rep. of Third Comm., U.N. Doc. A/777 (Dec. 7, 1948); U.N. GAOR, 3rd Sess., pt. 1, 179th mtg. of Third Comm., at 893, U.N. Doc. A/C.3/SR.179 (Dec. 7, 1948). 118 Weissbrodt, Articles 8, 10, and 11, p. 10 n. 71. 119 U.N.G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, U.N. Doc. A/810 at 71 (Dec. 10, 1948). 120 Schabas, UDHR Travaux, p. lxxi. 121 Hurst Hannum, “The Status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in National and International Law” (1995–96) 25 Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 287, 317. 122 U.N., The International Bill of Human Rights (1988), p. 1, quoted in Hannum, “Status of the Universal Declaration,” 318. 123 Universal Declaration, preamble. 42 Universal Declaration of Human Rights since been held to exert “moral, political, and legal influence far beyond the hopes of many of its drafters.” 124 As demonstrated later in this work, the Universal Declaration is incorporated into many domestic constitutions, and serves as the model for human rights protection in many more constitutions and statutes. 125 Some agree with Louis Henken that the Declaration provides the content of the U.N. Charter’s pledges, thus taking on the binding character of that treaty. 126 Hannum points to a number of commentators, including Humphrey Waldock, Patrick Thornberry, Philip Alston, and Justice R. Lallah, who argue that the entire Declaration represents international customary law, 127 and Schabas, who has referred to it as a codification of customary law. 128 The Human Rights Council has established the Declaration as one of the normative bases for Universal Periodic Review, 129 and Schabas observes that the behavior of states shows an acceptance of the Declaration as a legal foundation for their submissions to the Council. 130 Schabas rightly points out that the Declaration is addressed broadly, even to states that are not members of the U.N.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Habermas

  Introduction and Analysis

  • David Ingram(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cornell University Press

    (Publisher)

  Furthermore, as a related matter, the moral justification and meaning of human rights refers not only to harms that persons have endured at the hands of governments but also—and more fundamentally—to shortfalls in the secure enjoyment of basic goods that persons need in order to cultivate their basic hu-manity. The critical reflection (or deliberation) that progressively clarifies the meaning of basic human capabilities must unfold as the collective enterprise of humanity itself, as it stretches democratic impartiality beyond all spatial and temporal limits. So construed, human rights designate goals or standards against which we judge shortfalls in basic goods that any fully civilized society ought to provide its citizens. This exclusively moral understanding of human rights thus desig-nates an aspiration, as the preamble to the UDHR puts it, that is urged on all of us to realize at some unspecified time in the future, without regard to our citizenship or official status. In turn, the duties and responsibilities that flow from this aspiration emerge in the course of a global dialogue concerning our own human capabilities and society’s failure to develop them equally and in-clusively. In the words of Habermas, human rights “function . . . as sensors for exclusionary practices exercised in their name” ( PC 120). 16. “Human Rights are juridical by their very nature. What lends them the appearance of moral rights is not their content, and most especially not their structure, but rather their mode of validation, which points beyond the legal order of nation states” ( IO 190). The Foundational Rights 177 By contrast, when considered as a decision procedure for resolving current normative conflicts—and not as a process of enlightenment—Habermas’s dis-course theory inclines toward a different understanding of human rights.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Philosophical Theory and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • William Sweet(Author)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • University of Ottawa Press

    (Publisher)

  It is not easy. As Maritain says, advocates of different ideologies will lay down on paper similar, perhaps identical, lists of the rights of man. They will not, however, play that instrument in the same way. 37 Here is the challenge for the United Nations and the work they carried out since 10 December 1948. Having laid down the lists of rights in the UDHR, the UN must strive to keep the door open for discussion among the proponents of the different 124 Bradley R. Munro ideologies. Each ideology harbors a different hierarchy of values which determine for their proponents which rights get the most play. Everything depends upon the supreme value in accordance with which all these rights will be ordered and will mutually limit each other. It is by virtue of the hierarchy of values to which we thus subscribe that we determine the way in which the rights of man, economic and social as well as individual, should, in our eyes, pass into the realm of existence. 38 At the time Maritain was writing, he was concerned with three schools of thought with different values and different ways of interpreting the list of rights. These were the liberal-individualistic, communistic, and personalistic. Each had its own way of interpreting what constitutes human dignity. Today, with approx-imately 180 states in the United Nations, many more schools of thought, ideologies, cultures, languages, and religions are represented. Each has its own interpretation of the rights in the UDHR. The practical challenge for philosophers today is to devise ways and means to help states and peoples discuss their differences and lead to peaceful resolution of the difficulties of interpretation. The various fora in the context of the United Nations provide common ground for the peoples of the world to listen to the various perspectives and work out instruments that assure human dignity for each and everyone of us regardless of ideological persuasion.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book