Several months after the end of World War II in 1945, the United Nations was established in the hope that it could prevent the repetition of any such horrors. Three years later, the early member states of the UN adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first international expression of such rights. Although none of the member states voted against the Declaration, a number of them abstained, including the Soviet Union, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. Though it is neither legally binding nor enforceable, the Declaration has achieved widespread, but not universal, acceptance as an expression of humankind’s highest ideals and has been incorporated into the constitutions of many countries. Its vision of the future reflected the sobering experience of two global wars in a single generation and represented perhaps more of a hope than a prediction.
Questions to consider as you examine the source:
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
The General Assembly proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. . . .
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
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. . . .
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. . . .
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. . . .
Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. . . .
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 freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. . . .
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization . . . of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Source: From The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly of the United Nations, adopted December 10, 1948. Reprinted by permission of the United Nations.