Today, 10 December, marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Declaration of Human Rights.
All too sadly, 60 years on there is not much to celebrate as notable abuses of human rights continue across the globe.
Notably, Al Jazeera - unlike most of the rest of the media which seems to be passing in noting the anniversary - reports on it:
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was a significant document which enshrined the liberties of all peoples when it was adopted by the UN in 1948 but has seen its significance erode from one conflict to another, analysts have said.
Human rights experts and advocacy groups say politicisation of the UDHR by governments in the past 20 years has severely undermined its value along with its power to inspire.
Mary Robinson, the former UN high commissioner for human rights and the first woman president of Ireland, believes that despite the UDHR's efforts to bridge social and racial differences, the world today is more divided than ever.
"We are more divided on values than we should be, given the Universal Declaration and that's because human rights have become too politicised."
She says lines have been drawn between the West and the Islamic world, the poor and the rich.
Injustice, repression, torture
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Drafted and signed on December 10, 1948, the declaration marked the first time in history that nations had come together to agree on basic principles of justice, equality, and rights for all.
The US was influential in drawing up the document and the two primary international covenants — on political and civil rights (ICCPR) and on economic, social, and cultural rights (ICESCR) — that transformed the principles of the nonbinding declaration into treaty-based legal obligations.
Immediately hailed as a triumph, the declaration united very diverse and even conflicting political regimes, religious systems and cultural traditions.
Six decades later, it has become the foundation of international human rights law, serving as a model for numerous treaties and declarations.
Amnesty International's 2008 State of the World's Human Rights report shows that 60 years after the UN adopted the UDHR, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries."
Also, perhaps significantly, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights on Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk, issued a statement yesterday under the heading "Gaza: Silence is not an option". Read the Statement here.
All too sadly, 60 years on there is not much to celebrate as notable abuses of human rights continue across the globe.
Notably, Al Jazeera - unlike most of the rest of the media which seems to be passing in noting the anniversary - reports on it:
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was a significant document which enshrined the liberties of all peoples when it was adopted by the UN in 1948 but has seen its significance erode from one conflict to another, analysts have said.
Human rights experts and advocacy groups say politicisation of the UDHR by governments in the past 20 years has severely undermined its value along with its power to inspire.
Mary Robinson, the former UN high commissioner for human rights and the first woman president of Ireland, believes that despite the UDHR's efforts to bridge social and racial differences, the world today is more divided than ever.
"We are more divided on values than we should be, given the Universal Declaration and that's because human rights have become too politicised."
She says lines have been drawn between the West and the Islamic world, the poor and the rich.
Injustice, repression, torture
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Drafted and signed on December 10, 1948, the declaration marked the first time in history that nations had come together to agree on basic principles of justice, equality, and rights for all.
The US was influential in drawing up the document and the two primary international covenants — on political and civil rights (ICCPR) and on economic, social, and cultural rights (ICESCR) — that transformed the principles of the nonbinding declaration into treaty-based legal obligations.
Immediately hailed as a triumph, the declaration united very diverse and even conflicting political regimes, religious systems and cultural traditions.
Six decades later, it has become the foundation of international human rights law, serving as a model for numerous treaties and declarations.
Amnesty International's 2008 State of the World's Human Rights report shows that 60 years after the UN adopted the UDHR, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries."
Also, perhaps significantly, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights on Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk, issued a statement yesterday under the heading "Gaza: Silence is not an option". Read the Statement here.
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