The human rights movement is a global struggle for equality and justice. It is based on the belief that every person has fundamental worth and dignity. Across the world, there is growing consensus about the rights and responsibilities we all have to each other, and about how to promote and protect them. Many people now understand that there are certain things we all have a right to, simply because we are born human: the ability to live without fear of hunger or violence; the opportunity to have freedom of speech; and the right not to be arbitrarily detained or killed.
Most people also know that everyone has a responsibility to respect these rights, and not to violate them. This is because when a person fails to respect another person’s right, they are violating their own duty to humanity. This is why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) lists ‘respect for the rights and freedoms of others’ as one of its key principles.
These principles form the basis of all international human rights treaties and agreements, and are reflected in the laws of all states. This means that if a country fails to honour its commitments under a human rights treaty, it may be considered as violating the terms of that agreement. This is why it is so important that countries ratify these agreements, ensuring they are binding on them.
People have always had ideas about the importance of human rights – for example, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the notion that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” played a vital role in opposition to political absolutism. But it was the terrible atrocities of World War II that propelled these ideas to the forefront of the world’s attention, and gave rise to a new generation of international treaties.
The UDHR was the first global agreement that recognised all humans as being free and equal, regardless of colour, creed or religion. It also made it clear that all governments have a duty to promote and protect human rights for their citizens, regardless of the political, economic and cultural systems they operate under.
Since its adoption, the UDHR has inspired more than seventy human rights treaties, which are applied on a permanent basis at global and regional levels. The UDHR is the foundation for a world built on freedom, justice and peace.
Some human rights issues – such as slavery, the death penalty and female genital mutilation – remain controversial, but the UDHR shows that most people now agree that these are basic human rights, and that they cannot be justified by a claim of cultural or religious tradition. This reflects the fact that human rights are not a fixed set of rules, but an evolving area of moral and legal thought. The debates that take place about specific human rights issues should be a source of inspiration, rather than discouragement.