The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

With less than a century having passed since a standard of international human rights has been recognised globally, it can be suggested that the implementation of civil and political rights has had to overcome limitations and have faced ongoing threats, and that this is still a problem in contemporary times.

In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was approved. by the United National General Assembly. Since then the idea of human rights has become a ubiquitous part of the world order, and is used to justify sanctions and wars against offending countries (Goodhart, 2016: 2-3). With something so pervasive across international relations it is important to interrogate it and come to an understanding of what exactly human rights are, and how it works. This essay will examine human rights by looking at how it is implemented by the United Nations, and what obstacles it has faced. This essay will be organized in the following way: First, it will give a brief history of human rights as a UN doctrine and philosphy in order to situate the essay. Second it will look at the tools the UN has to enforce Human Rights, specifically looking at so-called “naming and shaming”, sanctions, and military actions and the obstacles these tools have to being effective. Finally, using this information it will draw a conclusion about the state of Human Rights as a whole.

Being born in the United States automatically grants you certain rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and press, unlike being born in another country. Many presidents and people fought to have these basic rights granted to us. One may question why it is important to have freedom of speech and religion, well here is why.

“Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of happiness,” is one of the most important parts of the declaration. That means that citizens have the right to all those things. It is a natural right. The words of the Declaration of Independence mean the right freedom, justice, equality, security, protection, and fair government. I think the two most important words are Rights and equality.

Roughly 600 years ago, Columbus came and “discovered” America although there were people currently living there. Europeans soon claimed the land as theirs and called themselves Americans. Today, although people have made a living in the United States, they are being sent back because of their race and where they came from. The ban of people from the Middle East entering the United States took the world by shock although Donald Trump has talked about it before his presidency. Many people believed that he was not going to be able to do it since it violates the United States Constitution. It also infringes with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and managed to still get away with it.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” as Mark Twain is often reputed to have said explains with much rhetoric that in fact history is not repeated in a sense that the same events happen over and over again, instead events embrace similar themes. The same concept of Mr. Twain’s history comparison can be brought in support of why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) drafted in 1948 by the UN --an international agreement that dictates basic rights and undeniable freedoms in which all human beings are entitled to-- should be updated. After analyzing the Human Rights Treaty it was concluded that amending the UDHR should be considered because of advancements in the world, in main part due to globalization and

Imagine a dog who is ill and suffering, they don’t speak nor do they voice their opinions yet you can tell that there in a world of pain and misery. You decide to put them down, put them at rest; knowing their not in pain and suffering. How can this be justified when a person who is terminally ill can’t make the decision on how they end their life. Through countless surgeries, chemotherapy and many vital medical treatments that were vital once in their life, that can now no longer be beneficial, a person cannot simply decide his or her fate.

The historic development of rights is associated with the development of western philosophical ideas and political principles. The recognition of man as a moral entity with self-worth and human dignity are ideas rediscovered in the Age of Enlightenment, most famously by the philosopher Immanuel Kant, ideas which challenged the authority of institutions deep rooted into society like the church and state. Although pre-Enlightenment, Britain already had a set of codified rights laid out in documents like the ‘Magna Carta of 1215’ or ‘The Bill of Rights of 1968’ . The rights contained in both documents were not human rights but rather political settlements between the monarch and property owning men. It was therefore until 1789, with the creation of the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France’, and the ‘Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution’, that had there been an article which laid out a formal

In Tampa, Florida, Ralph Wald walked in on his former neighbor Walter Conley, in bed with his wife. After he fatally shot Conley, who was less than half his age, Wald claimed he did not recognize him and assumed he was a stranger raping his wife. He was acquitted after two days of testimony and according to the Tampa Bay Times, Wald’s defense team invoked the Stand Your Ground law noting that Wald had ‘no duty to retreat’ when facing danger within his own home. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such

At the core of society are the undeniable rights we are afforded as human beings. These rights are outlined in the United Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a way to protect each individual’s freedoms. Since its adoption sixty-seven years ago, society and its viewpoints have changed drastically (“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights”). Therefore, while at the time the intentions for this document might have been genuine to protect all people, they are no longer sufficient. The lack of inclusion in this document has led to the creation of documents such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The concept that morals are not inherent or universal but are developed by the necessities of a given society at any certain time, as presented in William Graham Sumner’s Folkways, is inadequate and displeasing. While some moral practices are relative to particular cultures, that does not mean that there are no rights that belong to everyone, nor does it mean that just because an activity is practiced that it is morally justifiable. Each human being is entitled to a certain set of liberties, which are outlined in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” All individuals are supposed to have equal access to these rights, but according to Sumner, all rights are cultural and none are universal.

Freedom, Webster's dictionary defines freedom as the power or right to speak, act or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. I believe that freedom is the fundamental right that all humans are born with regardless of their status or whatever label that has been put on them. Freedom is what unites all people in the sense that we are all free to make whatever we want of ourselves; to do, say and think what we please without any unjust consequence. In the opening words of the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the United Nations composed, it states “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all the members of the human family is the foundation of freedom.” In other words,

Human rights are universal rights that we are entitled to. It is a freedom that is guaranteed based on the principle of respect for an individual. As mentioned in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights are a “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all member of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world” (Kent, page 80). When asked what our rights are, we tend to get different answers and meanings. Some people recite the rights that they know; but let’s face it, not everyone knows all of the rights that they truly have. The rights we have consist of many things such as the right of having an adequate food supply. The right to

The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights stands as the current gold standard for every individual’s rights. Focusing on culture, one may see that cultural rights are not clearly defined and are oftentimes in conflict with other types of rights. In this paper, I will first discuss the United Nations’ use of ‘cultural’ in its universal human rights in relation to the concept of cultural relativism. Then, using South African and American practices, such as virginity testing and discriminatory criminal justice system respectively, I will describe and analyze practices violate the UN’s universal human rights in addition to the practices’ use for the community or society as a whole. Lastly, I will compare the American Anthropological Association’s rights to culture to the UN’s universal human rights by analyzing the limitations of each.

U Thant the Burmese United Nations Secretary General from 1961 to 1971 spoke on the Declaration of Human Rights: