Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Template:TOC-right Enacted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is intended to codify the human rights obligations of the United Nations Charter. It is a framework for developing procedures to enforce human rights; it does not, in and of itself, create laws, courts, or enforcement mechanisms.

Actual codification of procedures is the principal role of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), supplemented by other agreements. For example, the ICCPR clarifies that the right to liberty does not extend to court sentences, military duty, or compelled service in true emergencies.

Realistically, many of its principles are ideals and not fully followed in many states.

General principles

Article 1 says "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Article 2 states its jurisdiction: "without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status...Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Prohibited practices

Several Articles prohibit practices, such as slavery (Article 4), torture (Article 5), arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. (Article 9), "arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation." (Article

Positive rights

While the Conventions speak of a right to national or international movement, this has not been interpreted to mean that States cannot establish immigration or visitation restrictions, declare secure areas within their borders, or override the right of a property owner to control visitors.

It states a number of positive rights, freedom of movement and residence inside a State, as well as the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his country. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.

Article 16 defines the family as the fundamental unit of society, and establishes a right to marriage. Marriage, however, implies equal rights and full consent of the partners.

Private ownership of property, by individuals and groups, is guaranteed by Article 17.

  1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
  2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
  3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

  1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
  2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20

  1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
  2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Citizenship and detention

While Article 14 establishes the right to asylum, in other coutries, from persecution, " This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. It is generally understood that it may need to be adjudicated if a genuine fear of prosecution exists.

Article 15 states a right to a nationality and the rights not to be arbitrarily deprived of nationality or the right to change nationality. "Arbitrarily" is key here, covering cases where an immigrant obtained citizenship through fraud. The Declaration does not speak to the rules by which specific countries may or may not grant citizenship.

==Justice==

The Convention establishes principles for arrest and trial, beginning with Article 6, "Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law." All are entitled to equal protection with no discrimination, according to Article 7.

Theory and practice may conflict in some of sections in this area. For example, Article 8 states a right to a "competent national tribunal", but what if the individual's citizenship is with a state that no longer exists, or a failed state whose courts are not functioning? How is the Article 10 right to a "fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal" balance with the sensitivity of personal information, or of commercial or government secrets?

Article 11 makes a presumption of innocence, with guilt to be proven in a tribunal. It also forbids ex post facto prosecution: "No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed." The International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg), as well as other war crimes tribunals created under different levels of formality in international law, prosecuted individuals, executing some, for things such as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, which were not internationally recognized individual offenses at the time they were committed.