Universal rights?

It is the first and perhaps the most important globally accepted document recognizing the dignity and rights of every man and woman. Pope John Paul II called it “one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris in December 1948. United States’ Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the Assembly on December 9^th 1948, urging the UN’s 58 members to adopt the historic declaration.

We listen back to her words and those of one of the drafters of the Declaration, Lebanese Charles Malik...

Pope Benedict XVI described The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as “ the outcome of a convergence of different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the common desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the workings of society.”

48 member states ratified the Declaration on December 10, 1948, among them: 21 Latin American and Caribbean nations, 16 members from Europe and six from Asia including China, India, Burma and the Philippines. Among those countries which abstained from the vote: the Soviet Union and a South Africa under Apartheid. Of the nine majority Muslim member countries: Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey, Saudi Arabia was the single one to abstain.

Tracey McClure takes a look back at what prompted U.N. member states to enshrine human rights in a global declaration and examines some of the challenges it faces today...
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