Editing Human rights (section)

==== Universal Declaration of Human Rights ====
{{main|Universal Declaration of Human Rights}}

[[File:Eleanor Roosevelt UDHR.jpg|right|thumb|"It is not a [[treaty]]... [In the future, it] may well become the international [[Magna Carta]]."<ref>{{cite web |title=Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human |url=https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/centres-institutes/bonavero-institute-human-rights/eleanor-roosevelt-and-universal-declaration-human |website=www.law.ox.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] with the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] in 1949.]]

The [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (UDHR) is a non-binding declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948,<ref>(A/RES/217, 10 December 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris)</ref> partly in response to the events of [[World War II]]. The UDHR urges member states to promote a number of human, civil, economic and social rights, asserting these rights are part of the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world". The declaration was the first international legal effort to limit the behavior of states and make sure they did their duties to their citizens following the model of the [[corelative|rights-duty duality]].

{{blockquote|text={{omission}} 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|source=''Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights'', 1948}}

The UDHR was framed by members of the Human Rights Commission, with [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] as chair, who began to discuss an ''International Bill of Rights'' in 1947. The members of the Commission did not immediately agree on the form of such a bill of rights, and whether, or how, it should be enforced. The Commission proceeded to frame the UDHR and accompanying treaties, but the UDHR quickly became the priority.<ref name=Glendon>{{cite journal |title=The Rule of Law in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights |last=Glendon |first=Mary Ann |url=http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/jihr/v2/5/ |journal=Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights |date=July 2004 |volume=2 |number=5 |access-date=7 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720014500/http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/jihr/v2/5/ |archive-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Canadian law professor [[John Peters Humphrey|John Humphrey]] and French lawyer [[René Cassin]] were responsible for much of the cross-national research and the structure of the document respectively, where the articles of the declaration were interpretative of the general principle of the preamble. The document was structured by Cassin to include the basic principles of dignity, liberty, equality and brotherhood in the first two articles, followed successively by rights pertaining to individuals; rights of individuals in relation to each other and to groups; spiritual, public and political rights; and [[economic, social and cultural rights]]. The final three articles place, according to Cassin, rights in the context of limits, duties and the social and political order in which they are to be realized.<ref name=Glendon/> Humphrey and Cassin intended the rights in the UDHR to be legally enforceable through some means, as is reflected in the third clause of the preamble:<ref name=Glendon/>

{{blockquote|text=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.|source=''Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights'', 1948}}

Some of the UDHR was researched and written by a committee of international experts on human rights, including representatives from all continents and all major religions, and drawing on consultation with leaders such as [[Mahatma Gandhi]].{{sfnp|Glendon|2001}} The inclusion of both [[civil and political rights]] and economic, social, and cultural rights was predicated on the assumption that basic human rights are indivisible and that the different types of rights listed are inextricably linked.<ref name=Glendon/>{{sfnp|Ball|Gready|2007|p=34}} Although this principle was not opposed by any member states at the time of adoption (the declaration was adopted unanimously, with the abstention of the [[Soviet bloc]], [[apartheid]] South Africa, and [[Saudi Arabia]]), this principle was later subject to significant challenges.{{sfnp|Ball|Gready|2007|p=34}} On the issue of the term ''universal'', the declarations did not apply to domestic discrimination or racism.<ref>[[Paul Gordon Lauren]], "First Principles of Racial Equality: History and the Politics and Diplomacy of Human Rights Provisions in the United Nations Charter", ''Human Rights Quarterly'' 5 (1983): 1–26.</ref> Henry J. Richardson III argued:<ref>Henry J. Richardson III, "Black People, Technocracy, and Legal Process: Thoughts, Fears, and Goals", in ''Public Policy for the Black Community,'' ed. by Marguerite Ross Barnett and James A. Hefner (Port Washington, N.Y.: Alfred Publishing, 1976), p, 179.</ref>
:All major governments at the time of drafting the U.N. charter and the Universal declaration did their best to ensure, by all means known to domestic and international law, that these principles had only international application and carried no legal obligation on those governments to be implemented domestically. All tacitly realized that for their own discriminated-against minorities to acquire leverage on the basis of legally being able to claim enforcement of these wide-reaching rights would create pressures that would be political dynamite.

The onset of the [[Cold War]] soon after the UDHR was conceived brought to the fore divisions over the inclusion of both economic and social rights and civil and political rights in the declaration. Capitalist states tended to place strong emphasis on civil and political rights (such as freedom of association and expression), and were reluctant to include economic and social rights (such as the right to work and the right to join a union). Socialist states placed much greater importance on economic and social rights and argued strongly for their inclusion.{{sfnp|Ball|Gready|2007|p=35}} Because of the divisions over which rights to include and because some states declined to ratify any treaties including certain specific interpretations of human rights, and despite the Soviet bloc and a number of developing countries arguing strongly for the inclusion of all rights in a Unity Resolution, the rights enshrined in the UDHR were split into two separate covenants, allowing states to adopt some rights and derogate others. Although this allowed the covenants to be created, it denied the proposed principle that all rights are linked, which was central to some interpretations of the UDHR.{{sfnp|Ball|Gready|2007|p=35}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Human Rights and Human Wrongs |author=Littman, David G. |website=[[National Review]] |date=19 January 2003 |quote=The principal aim of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was to create a framework for a universal code based on mutual consent. The early years of the United Nations were overshadowed by the division between the Western and Communist conceptions of human rights, although neither side called into question the concept of universality. The debate centered on which "rights" – political, economic, and social – were to be included among the Universal Instruments |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-littman011903.asp |access-date=7 January 2008 |archive-date=11 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111120259/http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-littman011903.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the UDHR is a non-binding resolution, it is now considered to be a central component of international [[customary law]] which may be invoked under appropriate circumstances by state judiciaries and other judiciaries.{{sfnp|Ball|Gready|2007|p={{page needed|date=May 2022}}}}