The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in U.S. Domestic and Foreign Policy
You are a ten year old girl living in Uganda. Your clothes are filthy, and you haven’t eaten in two days. You’re currently hiding under a rusty piece of scrap metal from those people- the ones who go around collecting children sometimes younger than yourself to fight. You’ve heard stories about the other children that have been taken- stories of drugs, rape, and abuse. You’ve heard of children the same age as yourself being drugged and sent out to fight for their lives or turned into sex slaves for military officials. Everyone you know is gone, and there is no one there to save you. All you want is someone you can depend on. All you want is for someone to help.
This is not just an imaginary horror story. It’s the grisly reality for thousands of children throughout developing countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan, and Somalia, among others. The plight of the child soldier is not often publicly recognized. They are often "invisible", as are the many other innocent victims of human rights violations throughout the developing countries of the world.
Many of the human rights identified by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are fundamental to the wellbeing of every human being in every country worldwide. Several such rights included in the Declaration include, among many others, “the right to life, liberty and security of person,... [the right to equality] before the law and [entitlement] without any discrimination to equal protection of the law [and] against any discrimination.” (“Universal Declaration”). While the United States cannot dictate the way the governments of other countries control their citizens, it is crucial t...
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...4. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. .
This is an op-ed by Doug Bandow, a writer for CATO Institute's At Liberty about the reasons why the United States should not get involved in conflicts in other countries. I chose to include it in order to give examples of the opposing opinion.
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. UN. 10 Dec. 1948. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. .
This is a document adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a declaration by which to measure and ensure global human rights. I chose to include this to provide examples of rights that are fundamental to the wellbeing of every human being in every country worldwide.
Human rights are the rights in which all the human beings are entitled by virtue of their being as a human (Manchester University Press, 2001). The concept of the human rights itself is an abstract. However, when it is applied, it has the direct and enormous impact on the daily life of the people in the world. How the human rights applied in the broader circumstance is really having a long journey. Until in 1945, after the World War II, the United Nations (UN) was established as one of the effort to uphold the human rights to encourage the governments in promoting and guarding the human rights. Human rights are a central element of international law and also the UN Charter’s broad approach for the international peace and security
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.
Declaration of Human Rights: Dignity and Justice for All of Us. Accessed on October 29,
Before any legislation could be implemented, a definition of human rights had to be compiled and accepted. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was approved in 1948 by th...
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Amnesty International USA - Protect Human Rights. 19 May 2009 .
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2013. .
These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). United Nations. Retrieved April 18, 2011, from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
Declaration of Human Rights: Dignity and Justice for All of Us. Accessed on October 29,
48 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948 UNGA Res 217 A(III) (UDHR), Art 1
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), G.A. res. 217A (III), U.N. Doc A/810 at 71.
On December 10th in 1948, the general assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration, although not legally binding, created “a common standard of achievement of all people and all nations…to promote respect for those rights and freedoms” (Goodhart, 379). However, many cultures assert that the human rights policies outlined in the declaration undermine cultural beliefs and practices. This assertion makes the search for universal human rights very difficult to achieve. I would like to focus on articles 3, 14 and 25 to address how these articles could be modified to incorporate cultural differences, without completely undermining the search for human rights practices.
The role that globalization plays in spreading and promoting human rights and democracy is a subject that is capable spurring great debate. Human rights are to be seen as the standards that gives any human walking the earth regardless of any differences equal privileges. The United Nations goes a step further and defines human rights as,
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the discourse of international human rights and its importance has increasingly become indoctrinated in the international community. In the context of political and economic development, there have been debates on how and which rights should be ordered and protected throughout different cultures and communities. Though there is a general acceptance of international human rights around the globe, there is an approach that divides them into civil and political rights and social and economic rights, which puts emphasis where it need not be.