Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Creation, Structure and legal implications, Major principles, Criticism

An international declaration, adopted in 1948 by the General Assembly of the UN. It declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights without discrimination of race, colour, sex, language, political opinion, or religion. The Declaration is not legally binding, but it has greatly influenced the activities of the UN, affecting both national and international law, and has widely influenced debate on human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) bind countries which have signed them. The 1948 Declaration and the two International Covenants are sometimes known as the International Bill of Rights. The United Nations has set up a Commission on Human Rights, which investigates widespread violations of human rights. In addition, the Human Rights Committee, which was set up in 1977, has the power to look into complaints from individuals about breaches of the 1966 Covenants on civil and political rights. There are also various regional conventions, such as the European Convention on Human Rights. Humanitarian law regulating war crimes has followed a separate course. Various tribunals have, since World War 2, rounded up senior war criminals, such as the Nuremberg Tribunal (1945–6) and the International War Crimes Tribunal against former Yugoslav and Rwandan nationals (set up by the UN Security Council). In 1998, a UN conference agreed on a treaty setting up a permanent International Criminal Court. The US opposes this court, but 58 of the 60 countries necessary to establish the Court have formally signed the treaty.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (also UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, December 10, 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris), outlining the organization's view on the human rights guaranteed to all people.

Creation

When the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany became apparent after the Second World War, there was a general consensus within the world community that the United Nations Charter did not sufficiently clarify rights it protected. Rather, a universal declaration that articulated and codified the rights of individuals was necessary. The government switched its position later when the draft went to the General Assembly.[]

Structure and legal implications

The document is laid out in the civil law tradition, including a preamble followed by thirty articles. The declaration does not form part of international law, but it is a powerful tool in applying diplomatic and moral pressure to governments that violate any of its articles. The 1968 United Nations International Conference on Human Rights decided it "constitutes an obligation for the members of the international community" to all persons. The declaration has served as the foundation for the original two legally-binding UN human rights covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Major principles

There are a total of thirty articles outlining people's human rights, but the most important principles declared are considered to be the following:

The right to life, liberty and security of person. The right to an education. The right to employment, paid holidays, protection against unemployment, and social security. The right to participate fully in cultural life.

Criticism

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick criticised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as being the opposite of human rights, arguing that certain economic rights cannot be human rights, for they must be provided by others through forceful extraction, i.e. taxation, and they negate other peoples' inalienable rights. Predominantly Muslim countries, like Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, frequently criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western countries. In 1981, the Iranian representative to the United Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, articulated the position of his country regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by saying that the UDHR was "a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims without trespassing the Islamic law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not mention where the rights come from. Thus, many utilitarian philosophers claim that it is meaningless to say people have rights without any authority or reason that such rights even exist.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense -- nonsense upon stilts. Some of the translations available on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights website contain unrectified mistakes . Non-binding agreements Millennium Development Goals Cyrus Cylinder, Ancient Persia, 559-530 BC Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, 1990 Binding agreements Cáin Adomnáin, 697 Magna Carta, England, 1215 English Bill of Rights and Scottish Claim of Right, 1689 Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 1776 United States Declaration of Independence, July 1776 United States Bill of Rights, completed in 1789, approved in 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789 Constitution of the Soviet Union, first 1918 European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, 2000 Other Declaration on Great Apes, an as-yet unsuccessful effort to extend some human rights to great apes Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1954 International Convenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 1965 International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 International Convenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1969 The Convenant on the Elimination of All Forms Discrimination Against Women, 1979 The Convenant on the Rights of the Child, 1989 Vienna Declaration, 1993 Further reading Johannes Morsink, "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting &