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60 years on
It was the year in which Burma gained independence, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, and apartheid laws were first introduced in South Africa. But 1948 also marked an unprecedented act of leadership, in which more than 50 UN member states came together to establish the first global statement of the inherent dignity and equality of every individual everywhere, always. Still reeling from the horrors of World War II, and conscious of an emerging Cold War, the drafting committee, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, took nearly two years to set down the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, before their formal adoption on 10 December 1948.
It was by no means the first human rights document. That honour belongs to the Cyrus Cylinder, issued in 539 B.C. by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ancient Iran) after his conquest of Babylon. Later the English Bill of Rights in 1689, drafted after the English Civil Wars, sprang from the people's aspiration for democracy, and a Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was incorporated first into the US Declaration of Independence in 1776, and later by the French National Assembly (1789) following the Revolution.
But those present at the signing of the UDHR at the UN in Paris in 1948 knew something groundbreaking was afoot. Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile, a member of the drafting sub-committee, wrote: ‘I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing-which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one's personality. In the Great Hall…there was an atmosphere of genuine solidarity and brotherhood among men and women from all latitudes, the like of which I have not seen again in any international setting.’
But 60 years on, how do those aspirations live up to reality? Snapshots from the 2008 Amnesty report show plenty of room for improvement.
ARTICLE 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights
Today’s reality: In the first half of 2007 nearly 250 women were killed by violent husbands or family members in Egypt and on average 2 women were raped there every hour.
ARTICLE 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person
Today’s reality: 1,252 people were known to have been executed by their state in 2007 in 24 countries; 104 countries however voted for a global moratorium on the death penalty.
ARTICLE 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Today’s reality: Amnesty International documented cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in more than 81 countries in 2007.
ARTICLE 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law
Today’s reality: Amnesty International's report highlights at least 23 countries with laws discriminating against women, at least 15 with laws discriminating against migrants and at least 14 with laws discriminating against minorities.
ARTICLE 9: No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile
Today’s reality: At the end of 2007, there were more than 600 people detained without charge, trial or judicial review of their detentions at the US airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan, and 25,000 held by the Multinational Force in Iraq.
ARTICLE 10: Everyone charged with a crime is entitled equally to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal
Today’s reality: 54 countries were recorded in the Amnesty International Report 2008 as conducting unfair trials.
ARTICLE 11: Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law
Today’s reality: Amnesty International figures show that around 800 people have been held at Guantánamo Bay since the detention facility opened in January 2002, some 270 are still being held there in 2008 without charge or due legal process.
ARTICLE 13: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state
Today’s reality: In 2007, there were more than 550 Israeli military checkpoints and blockades restricting or preventing the movement of Palestinians between towns and villages in the West Bank.
ARTICLE 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Today’s reality: Amnesty International has documented 45 countries as detaining Prisoners of Conscience.
ARTICLE 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
Today’s reality: 77 countries were restricting freedom of expression and the press according to the Amnesty International Report 2008.
ARTICLE 20: Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
Today’s reality: Thousands of people are believed to have been arrested during the crackdown on protests in Myanmar in 2007, Amnesty International estimates that around 700 remain in detention.
ARTICLE 23: Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to fair and equal pay, and to form and join trade unions
Today’s reality: At least 39 trade unionists were killed in Colombia in 2007, 22 have died in the first 4 months of this year.
ARTICLE 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being, especially mothers and children
Today’s reality: 14% of Malawi's population was living with HIV/AIDS in 2007, only 3% of them had access to free anti-retroviral drugs, 1 million children were orphaned there by HIV/AIDS related deaths.
All figures from Amnesty International Report 2008.
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