ON UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS!

1- UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS!

2- SOME OF THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SOCIALIST STATES, THAT IS COMMUNISTS, DURING THE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE DECLARATION.

  1. UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS: AMENDMENTS TO THE DRAFT DECLARATION PROPOSED TO THE THIRD COMMITTEE (A/777)

  2. PRESENTATION OF UK’S COUNTER PROPOSAL TO USSR DELEGATION’S AMENDENET TO NO: 3.

  3. UNITED KINGDOM: AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE 3 OF THE DRAFT DECLARATION PROPOSED BY THE THIRD COMMITTEE (A/777) ON UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS! Human Rights are extremely important, especially these days since all the bourgeois- imperialist states seems to be doing their invasion, occupation, exploitation, destruction and outright mass murder in the name of Human Rights. Reader will find below the Universal Declaration of Human Rights agreed by the UN. Socialist states did not support this declaration. In the final vote, socialist states have all abstained. Their reasons and how important these were and still are can be seen below. All communists should read these with pride in their ideology and their practice, in the humanity of their views and actions. All citizens of imperialist states, such as UK should note the shameful views of their representatives and all oppressed nations and countries should note who their friends and enemies were and are! Universal Declaration of Human Rights is introduced by the UN as follows: On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." 1- UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS! PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. Article 1.

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.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, 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. Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) 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. Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) 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. Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. Article 16.

(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. Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

2- SOME OF THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SOCIALIST STATES THAT IS COMMUNISTS, DURING THE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE DECLARATION.

The below views are directly from the UN documents on the discussion about UDHR:

  1. the right of asylum, the freedom of opinion and expression, and the granting of freedom of assembly and association should be limited so that fascists would not be able to profit by those provisions in order to overthrow democracy

  2. the Declaration should not entail any interference in the domestic jurisdiction of sovereign States.

  3. the right of nations to use their own language and to develop their own culture should not be omitted-but is omitted.

  4. three conditions indispensable to the completion of the Declaration, namely:

4.1: a guarantee of basic freedoms for all, with due regard to the national sovereignty of States;

4.2: a guarantee that human rights could be exercised with due regard to the particular economic, social and national circumstances prevailing in each country;

4.3: and a definition of the duties of citizens to their country, their people and their State.

  1. fascism was nowhere condemned in the draft.

  2. the rights specified in the draft were illusory as they lacked effective guarantees.

  3. the article on slavery and the article on the right to education - were, in a very abstract form.

  4. the article dealing with the freedom to disseminate ideas did nor solve the problem of freedom of expression, as the diffusion of dangerous ideas, such as war-mongering and fascist ideas, should be prevented.

  5. That same article, made no provision for the free dissemination of just and lofty ideas.

  6. If freedom of expression was to be effective, the workers must have the means of voicing their opinions, and for that they must have at their disposal printing presses and newspapers.

  7. The right to street demonstrations, should be guaranteed.

  8. it was necessary to make certain that scientific research would not be used for war purposes which would obviously hinder progress.

  9. a defect in the Declaration which was fundamental: the absence of provisions guaranteeing the rights of national minorities.

  10. the failure of the Declaration to mention: the sovereign rights of States.

  11. the Declaration contained a series of rights which could not be exercised, in view of the existing conditions and the economic structure of a great number of countries.

  12. Several elementary democratic rights which could be realized even in a capitalist society had been deliberately omitted.

  13. Before the right to work, to rest and to education could be put into effect, it was necessary to alter drastically the economic system of private enterprise. there could be true equality among men only under an economic system which guaranteed to everyone equal conditions and opportunities for the development of his own potentialities, and that was not the equality mentioned in the Declaration.

  14. The Declaration, was not imbued with revolutionary spirit; it was neither bold nor modern.

  15. The abolition of the death sentence in peace time was not agreed to; nor were "fascism" and "aggression" denounced publicly and formally.

  16. The Declaration; took no account of the practical aspects of the question of the right to work; it simply expressed lofty ideals, making no provision for their implementation in the difficult daily life of the workers.

  17. there was no point in proclaiming the right to leisure, if some men had no means of exercising that right.

  18. the Declaration was merely a proclamation of human rights, and it contained no guarantee of the rights it proclaimed.

  19. The right to national culture and democracy's struggle against fascism and nazism were not mentioned.

  20. The Declaration stated only traditional freedoms and rights of the old liberal school,

It failed to mention that the counterpart of those rights was the duty of the individual towards his neighbours, his family, his group and his nation.

  1. It completely ignored the right of every person to speak his own language and to have the protection of his national culture ensured.

  2. the Declaration, in reality, represented a step backward if compared with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which had been produced during the French Revolution; if compared with the Communist Manifesto, which had declared human rights as binding and necessary a hundred years ago; and if compared with the principles which had inspired the October Revolution.

  3. the Declaration was directed against national sovereignty and was therefore entirely inconsistent with the principles of the United Nations. The independence and well-being of a nation, depended on the principle of national sovereignty, and this principle was the sole protector of the smaller countries against the expansionist dreams of more powerful States.

Amendments proposed:

( 1 ) the extension to the population of Non-Self-Governing Territories of the provisions regarding the human and civic rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the Declaration;

(2) a declaration that it was the inalienable right of every person freely to express and disseminate democratic views, and to combat fascism;

( 3 ) a declaration that every citizen of any State must have the right, among other rights, of access to any State or public office in his country; and

(4) the insertion of a new article declaring that the rights and freedoms enumerated in the draft Declaration should be guaranteed by national laws

These were all rejected by individual roll-call votes. ( all should be able to guess by what states? ZG)

  1. UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS: AMENDMENTS TO THE DRAFT DECLARATION PROPOSED TO THE THIRD COMMITTEE (A/777)

Below are the amendments proposed by the delegation of USSR to the UDHR:

I. Substitute the following new article for article 3: (SHOULD BE NO: 2 IN THE FINAL DECLARATION ABOVE. MN)

Article 3

"1. Every people and every nation has the right to national self-determination. States responsible for the administration of non-self-governing territories, including colonies, shall facilitate the implementation of this right, guided by the principles and purposes of the United Nations in regard to the peoples of such territories.

"2. Every people and every nationality within a State shall enjoy equal rights. State laws shall not permit any discrimination whatsoever in this regard. National minorities shall be guaranteed the right to use their native language, and to possess their own national schools, libraries, museums and other cultural and educational institutions.

"3. The human and civic rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the present Declaration shall be extended to the population of non-self-governing territories, including colonies."

II. Substitute the following text for article 20: (SHOULD BE NO: 19 IN THE FINAL DECLARATION ABOVE. MN)

Article 20

"It is the inalienable right of every person freely to express and disseminate democratic views and ideas, to defend democratic systems and democratic state and social institutions, and to combat fascism in the spheres of ideology, politics and state and public life."

III. Substitute the following text for Article 22: (SHOULD BE NO: 21 IN THE FINAL DECLARATION ABOVE. MN)

Article 22

"1. Every citizen of any State, without distinction as to race, colour, nationality, birth, property status, social origin, language, religion, or sex, shall have the right to participate in the government of his country, and the right to elect and be elected to all organs of authority on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, and shall have the right, equally with other citizens, of access to any state or public office in his country.

"2. The establishment of property, educational or other qualifications restricting participation by the citizens of any State in voting at elections to representative organs is incompatible with the present Declaration."

IV. Insert the following new article after Article 30:

"The human and civic rights and fundamental freedoms enumerated in the present Declaration shall be guaranteed by national laws. Any violation or limitation of these rights, whether direct or indirect, shall be deemed to violate the present Declaration and to be incompatible with the high principles proclaimed in the United Nations Charter."

(DOCUMENT A/784; 8 December 1948; Original: Russian.)

These were all rejected by individual roll-call votes - all should be able to guess by what states!

  1. PRESENTATION OF UK’S COUNTER PROPOSAL TO USSR DELEGATION’S AMENDENET TO NO: 3.

The President then put to vote a United Kingdom amendment (A/778/Rev.1 ) to delete the additional article of the draft Declaration (referred to as article 3), which declared that the rights proclaimed in the Declaration would also apply to any person belonging to the population of Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories, and in its place to substitute the following text as an additional paragraph of the second article, regarding the application of the Declaration:.

"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."

The representative of the United Kingdom explained that article 2 of the draft Declaration laid down that every individual was entitled to the rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind. He argued that, if article 2 had any meaning and if its terms were sufficiently precise and enumerated sufficiently dearly the distinctions to be outlawed,

there was no reason to add an additional article (article 3) stipulating that those rights applied to the inhabitants of the Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories.

The United Kingdom amendment was adopted by 29 votes to 17, with 10 abstentions.

  1. UNITED KINGDOM: AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE 3 OF THE DRAFT DECLARATION PROPOSED BY THE THIRD COMMITTEE (A/777)

Original: English

Delete Article 3 and substitute the following text as paragraph 2 of Article 2:

"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."