Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
- Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans on the planet are entitled to regardless of:
- Nationality
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnic origin
- Religion
- Language
- Or any other status
- They range from the fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health and liberty
- Despite there being international framework in place, human rights vary from country to country
- This may be due to different government opinions or culture/religion of a state
Human Rights Index (2022)
- The map shows the extent to which people:
- Are free from government torture, political killings and forced labour
- Have property rights
- Enjoy the freedoms of movement, religion and expression
- The variable ranges from 0 (no/few rights) to 1 (most rights)
Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR)
- The UDHR, created in 1948, is a:
- Statement of intent, rather than legally binding
- Framework for foreign policy to explain economic and military intervention
- The UDHR sets out 30 universal rights, including:
- Everyone is born free and equal
- Everyone has the right to an opinion and freedom to express it
- Everyone has the right to marry
- Everyone has the right to a nationality and to belong to a country
- The declaration defines the meanings of two key terms:
- Fundamental freedoms
- Human rights.
- These terms are now embedded in the UN Charter and therefore require all 193 member states to recognise and respect the 30 universal rights
- The UDHR has been a significant factor in influencing foreign policies and international relationships, the UDHR has:
- Been used to justify a number of military interventions
- Inspired more than 80 international human rights treaties
- Used the promise of aid, especially economic, has been used to persuade other countries to improve their human rights record
- Despite the Declaration stating that these rights should be protected by law, not all countries agreed to it in 1948, including:
- South Africa – to protect its system of apartheid
- Saudi Arabia – under Saudi law conversion to another religion is punishable by death, so Muslims don’t have the right ‘to change their religion or belief’