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Students Output : UDHR 1948

Posted by Peter Hanna on 2010/6/12 23:45:50 (102 reads) News by the same author

UDHR 1948
Mazen Abdallah

Few documents have impacted the world like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An eminent work of international law and organization, the declaration represented a great milestone in the history of human rights. In fact, human rights had been existent for centuries before throughout the humanist philosophies of Enlightenment philosophers and the monotheistic religions. In fact, there had been moral codes drawn up in pre-Christian society in various parts of Africa, Asia and South America. Confucian teachings, ubuntu traditions and the Ten Commandments took a considerable amount of time to materialize into a universal list of human rights that were well-defined, agreed upon and all-encompassing. The result is a document unrivaled in its scope, focus and even brevity. The aim of this paper will be to elaborate on the challenges faced in creating the UDHR, especially in so far as bringing it to life as a singular body that would later assume an international role.
Though we take it for granted in our modern day and age, the explicit concept of human rights was not present until the latter half of the 20th century. As mentioned previously, various civilizations had coined moral and ethical legal systems that, for the most part, provided a social framework. But the explicit idea of human rights was not defined in modern discourse until after the World Wars devastated the global community and brought unprecedented levels of suffering. The ideas of humanity and its rights were finally emerging. But we were still not quite at the answer yet. Overall, the experiences of the war led to the basic knowledge that people could not suffer through the horrors of war. This is the premise of article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
We might ask, if faced with the notion that there are so many viable moral theories around and so ethical codes such as Islamic Shari’ah and the Ten Commandments, what the missing ingredient would be? While the great thinkers and prophets of the Middle Ages built civilizations with their knowledge and expertise, they were still short of the main goal. The goal would be to phrase the need for human rights in a way that made sure there would be the absolute foundation upon which all other rights would be built. This goal was, it seems fair to say, achieved in Article 1 of the Declaration. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The first article of the declaration delivered a shockingly clear and somehow intuitive statement, but one that spelled out a history of human rights’ accumulation into one guiding principle. It is no surprise that this article would be titled ‘Fundamental Human Rights’.
It is useful now to take a look at the historical developments that brought this unprecedented change. While the changing consciousness of man is certainly a great factor, the ingenuity of certain persons always drives success. Peter Benenson was a British Lawyer who was born to a Jewish family in London, and from an early age he was devoted to civil rights. He practiced briefly as a barrister before taking part in the formation of JUSTICE, UK-based human rights and legal reform group. After an incident in Portugal caught his attention, Benenson began organizing letter-writing campaigns to help the people involved, he formed the Amnesty International group. Amnesty International became a milestone in human rights, and was a major forerunner in the world drive to guarantee rights for prisoners and soldiers. It became one of the most recognized names in international human rights (Ronand, Ramos, 2005). Without Benenson’s tireless efforts in effecting great sweeping reform in the field of human rights, there could be no real hope for human rights in the future.
The process of creating the UDHR was also one that was faced with numerous challenges. The specific time frame of its drafting was 1947 to 1948, and the process drew on the efforts of a number of talented individuals. The meeting of the Commission on Human Rights marked the beginning of a number of stimulating and creative meetings where representatives from different countries would mull over proposals for various articles and what the emphasis would be in the declaration. Some interesting cases were the dialogues between the Chinese representative, Chang, and the Lebanese representative, Malik. The discussion revolved around the amount of Eastern philosophy in the Human Rights Declaration. This led to the realization that the world was no longer such a large place. There was finally a need to take everyone’s nationality into account.
Article 2 proves that the people who drafted the UDHR were conscious of the new world order, where there was no more boundary between countries other than borders.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. In previous times, this would seem illogical, as everyone was part of the same country, faith, etc. By putting provisions in the Declaration about discrimination, diversity could continue.
Unfortunately, diversity was not a positive force in the Cold War. The USA and the USSR had two different sets of priorities. The former advocated civil rights for its citizens. The USSR was not as concerned with civil rights, preferring to put more emphasis on the social and economic benefits of its citizens. As such, the covenants were born. The covenant dealing with the rights of citizens to organize and form governing bodies was entitled "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". Additionally, the "International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," was dedicated to the international advancement of economic well-being. This was a somewhat contradictory yet suitable solution.
The greatest difficulty posed in the UDHR is arguably in the Preamble, which states WHEREAS it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations. Overall, it seems that most of the difficulty in promoting international cooperation relates to the lack of agreement about what constitutes rights in different parts of the world. This explains why the declaration was not ratified universally in the beginning. Overall, its crowning achievement is still arguably Article 1. Universal and unconditional equality is the fabric without which human rights would be lost.