Human Rights

[denuseri]

This declaration is only as good as the actions that are taken to uphold it.

My personal opinion is that such loft goals as these are wonderful to strive for, yet very difficult to achieve.

I see no point in revoking them any more than the charter for the United Nations.

What should be done? Good question.

My best answer : As much as can be done considering not everyone in the world agrees, short of using war to achieve these goals save when only the most henious of crimes are being committed by a state against its poulace or a portion there of.

All other means should be exhasted first if possible.

[MMI]

Not that I'm very knowledgeable about the Declaration of Human Rights, or any of the treaties, accords or laws made under it, but I don't think they can possibly go too far. After all, virtually every country in the world has subscribed to them in one form or another.

The Declaration was made after the world discovered the atrocities Hitler's Germany had subjected the Jews, communists, gypsies, homosexuals and other unter-menschen to during its tyranny of Europe. There was a common view that no-one deserved to be degraded, incacerated, tortured or murdered in such a way, and nothing like it should ever happen again.

Unfortunately, those lofty aspirations have been let down time and time again, by too many countires to mention, but despite these failures, most nations still attempt to provide the basic elements of life to all citizens, and most abhor the denial of those rights where this occurs.

It would be wrong to weaken the Declaration by reworking it because that would signal to the countries that do still abuse human rights that it's OK now and to the others that human rights don't really matter much after all, so there's no point in trying to maintain them or improve them.

Most countries recognise and support basic human rights and must be encouraged to maintain them, both within thier own borders, and abroad where abuse is occurring. I am thinking of Zimbabwe as one place where intervention is long overdue.