Making Human Rights Come Alive: The UDHR at 75

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been the foundational document of international law ever since it was adopted by the UN in December 1948. Almost 75 years after its creation, the UDHR still defines and protects the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of all human beings in the world today.

Looking ahead to the anniversary, SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics (IGP) convened on October 23 a panel discussion on “Making Human Rights Come Alive: The UDHR at 75.”

Moderated by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, the discussion featured Michelle Bachelet, who served two terms as president of Chile and later was the United Nations’s high commissioner for human rights; Allida Black, a leading historian on the negotiation of the UDHR; Frank Mugisha, a Ugandan and prominent advocate for LGBTI rights, and Maria Ressa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist who is one of IGP’s Inaugural Carnegie Distinguished Fellows.

Black gave a moving account of the UDHR’s origin, recounting the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and the collective dedication of delegates from 18 nations in the years following World War II. Their work, she noted, was conducted against a backdrop of death and destruction around the globe.

The delegates faced a fundamental question, Black said: “Is the world going to be governed by horror, where we react, and we have violence and discrimination and polarization and unbridled anger seize every foreign and domestic policy? Or, in fact, are we going to have a vision that stands up to that? Hence, the power of the Declaration.”

 

“We need to build communities of action who believe in these values. They are still as important today as they were when they were formulated. Please, stand up for them.”

— Maria Ressa

Black and Bachelet both made the point that, contrary to some claims, the document was not just a construct of western powers.

“You had Lebanese, you have African, you have Chinese, you have Indian, you have Americans — you have Americans fighting with the British — so you have an exceedingly diverse set of voices trying to figure out what this means,” said Black.

Bachelet concurred, citing a female delegate from India who suggested that referring to the rights of ‘men’ would be used against women. This is one reason, she added, that UDHR speaks about ‘human beings’ without reference to gender. Bachelet spoke of Latin American delegates from Chile and other countries who emphasized economic and social rights. “It's not true [that UDHR is] a western construction,” she reiterated.

Bachelet also talked about pushback in recent years against the ideas embodied in UDHR. “The ideas of the declaration are more under attack today… clearly human rights are under assault everywhere.”

Clinton observed that the tactic of ‘name-and-shame’ remains powerful; the worst abusers of human rights don’t want to be called out.

“When I was secretary [of state] we would be lobbied just endlessly not to say that [a particular group was] putting Uighurs in camps or driving Rohingya out of Myanmar, or permitting tribal violence,” Clinton said. “We were constantly being asked ‘Don’t say that, that’s not fair, that’s not true.’ And we would say go fix it and then we won’t say it…. If you don’t want to be called a human rights violator and abuser then go fix it.”

For his part, Mugisha said the international community needs to act affirmatively to protect rights not only in his home country but throughout Africa and, indeed, around the world.

“We cannot look at homophobia and transphobia as [just] a Ugandan problem or [just] a problem for the Global South,” Mugisha said. “We are seeing it here [in the United States]. We are seeing trans rights reversed here. The progress… is being reversed. The time is now to include LGBT+ rights in foreign policies. Make sure it is continuous, and consistent.”

Ressa talked about the importance of journalism in sticking up for human rights, and the challenges posed by active efforts to spread disinformation. But she ultimately pointed to the UDHR’s enduring value.

“It's time to build,” Ressa said. “Step on the rubble of the world that was. Despite the anger, the fear, we need to build communities of action, who believe in these values. They are still as important today as they were when they were formulated. Please, stand up for them.”

As the event drew to a close, Bachelet expressed concern how young people in Chile who were born years after the Pinochet regime talk about that dictatorship favorably. She also noted the case of coups d’etat against democracies that have been applauded by citizens in several African countries. Why, she asked rhetorically, does this happen?

“Because democracy is not being delivered, not relevant,” she said. “We need to work on human rights but also work on how we strengthen democracy, its mechanisms, institutions, make people understand it's not a perfect system, but it's the best system we can have. And can also have mechanisms to correct what is not perfect. And we need to do that, because otherwise we're not going to have neither human rights nor anything.”

Watch the complete event: