UNIT IV

UNITED NATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

This Unit introduces to the reader with a brief legal evolution and the
significance of human rights in international arena. It will further
describe various provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, which
are concerned with human rights. It will then highlight the steps taken
by the UN in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
introduce the objectives of the preamble. It then proceeds to examine
each Article with explanation to UDHR.

An Overview of UN System
The basic object of international law since its origin has been to establish
peace and security on the globe and to help mankind to lead a life with
liberty, equality, and freedom from the atrocities. In order to achieve this
objective, the officials of nation-states have laid their emphasis to protect
the rights of mankind. Accordingly, the international legal policy started
emphasizing on the promotion and protection of human rights
universally without any kind of discrimination on grounds of sex,
religion, race etc. This philosophy ultimately became the corner stone
not only of all the branches of international law and the international
community, but that of the states in their Domestic Laws.
After the World War II, the victorious powers (popularly referred to as
Allied powers, namely, the US, UK, China, France, and former USSR)
have taken the initiative to end the wars in future and to settle any
disputes by peaceful means. This concept resulted in number of
conferences, wherein the future nations and peoples of the world could
have their confidence and live with utmost liberty and dignity.
Accordingly, they decided to establish an organization, which could
provide the required legal regulation of the states on the basis of their
participation. The name `United Nations' was suggested for the future
organisation, by the Former US President Franklin D Roosevelt, in 1942.
According to him, United Nations represents a symbol of Unity of
Independent Nations and their people who united to achieve peace
forever and to give away the concept of war. This concept of Roosevelt
received widespread recognition by other major countries. Accordingly,
they established the United Nations in 1945.
Various movements which started from centuries back for the
recognition of the rights of men and women, received widespread
recognition especially, in the western world. However, the independent
recognition by states in their constitutions had not given the much
required acknowledgement in the international arena. After the Second
World War, the member states, while discussing on the establishment of
United Nations seriously thought that in order to have similar rights of
man across the world. Accordingly, after long deliberations, the words
human rights took birth in international law with the adoption of the
Charter of the United Nations on October 24, 1945.

United Nations Organization has Six

Principal organs

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The General Assembly is composed of all the State parties' members to
the United Nations. The present strength of the UN is 193. The Assembly
meets once in a year normally in September. The president of each
session is elected every year by the member states. The General
Assembly is authorized by the Charter to oversee the various aspects
relating to human rights.

SECURITY COUNCIL
The Security Council is the main body responsible for the maintenance
of peace and security. It has a total strength of 15 out of which five are
permanent members (U.K., USA, France, Russia, and China) and 10
non-permanent members elected for every two years basing on
geographical representation. The Security
Council is highest body, whose decision is final on any matter. To receive
any decision for implementation it requires at least a majority of 10 votes.
The President of the Council rotates every month between the 15 States
in alphabetical order. The representatives of members states should
always be available in New York to facilitate the council to meet as and
when it is necessary.

SECRETARIAT
The United Nations has a secretariat to coordinate with the entire work
of all the organs of the UN. It functions under a Chief Administrative
Officer referred to as Secretary General. The term of Office of the
Secretary General is five years. It can be extendable indefinitely for any
number of terms. However, no Secretary General has worked more than
two terms. The Secretary General is appointed by the General Assembly
on the recommendations of the Security Council. The Secretary General
also normally elected on the basis of geographical rotation. The
Secretariat provides for studies, information, and facilities needed by
United Nations bodies for their meetings. The Secretariat is the
depository for all the Legal Instruments entered by the states. It carries
the work as directed by the organs of the UN.
The present Secretary General is from South Korea. He was elected in
2007 and is also reappointed for a second term which will start from
2012. Till date the following people served as secretary generals of the
UN.
Gladwyn Jebb Oct 24, 1945 to Feb, 1946 as an adhoc Secretary General
from UK.
Trygve Lie, February 1946-10 Nov 1952; Norway ( Resigned)
Dag Hammarskjold, 10 April 1953-18 September 1961, Sweden (Died
in Plane Crash)
U Thant, 30 November 1961-31 December 1971, Burma Kurt
Waldheim, 1 January 1972-31 December 1981 Austria
Javier Perez de Cuellar, 1 January 1982-31 December 1991, France
Boutros Boutros-Ghali ,1 January 1992- 31 December 1996, Egypt
 Kofi Annan, 1 January 1997-31 December 2006 Ghana Ban Ki-moon,
1 January 2007 onwards, South Korea

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

The Economic and Social Council is one of the principal organs of the
UN. It is responsible for the work of the Economic and Social affairs of
the bodies of the UN. It has
54 states as its members. They are elected by the General Assembly for
three-year term. The election of the States is based on geographical
distribution of regions of the world. It meets once in a year. This is the
main body mostly looks after the affairs of the Human Rights and
recommends to the UN bodies.

Trusteeship Council
Trusteeship council's objective is to promote harmonious relations
among the people of dependent territories and to make the territories
independent.
This council was established to administer the best interests of the
people in the territories under mandates by the League of Nations or
territories taken from nations after
Second World War. After 1945 it was entrusted to see and to protect the
interests of the people of the colonies. It has successfully achieved its
object in decolonizing all the territories and in enhancing the rights of
the people of those territories entrusted to it. Among the major success
of it is in the African region, where it could secure decolonization of
several territories from the colonial masters. (Trusteeship means any
country that is dependent on another country, for its economic, social,
and cultural development. It was established in order to look after needs
of the dependent country under the responsibility of international
community where more transparent development will be there, than
under the rule of the main country to administrating the activities of its
dependent country). The Council had achieved the objectives of
promotion of economic, social, cultural aspects of those territories (11
non self-governing territories) that entrusted to it to become
independent countries. Palau or
Pelew was the last trust territory that became the independent Republic
in 1994 under the purview of Trust territory. As a result, as of now, there
is no single country under trusteeship. Hence, the Council has no role to
play. However, the UN system stillretains and plans to use its activities
in future trusteeships if any come under its purview or may employ its
activities to achieve all round development of human rights in
underdeveloped countries with its experience.

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The ICJ is the main Judicial Organ of the UN. It is situated in the Peace
Palace at The Hague in the Netherlands. It settles the disputes submitted
by the States and renders advisory opinion to the United Nations. The
Court consists of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the UN. The
election takes place every three years, basing on the retirement of one
third of judges. The President of the Court is elected by the judges.
The chart at the end of book clearly specifies the mandate of human
rights law and the specific bodies that work in realizing them through
nation states.
Provisions of the UN Charter dealing with Human Rights
The preamble of the United Nations, as discussed above, declared its aim to wipe out
the fear of war, the promotion of human rights and the worth of human person and
dignity of mankind. It also seeks to establish justice, and promotes corporation
between the States to discharge their duties to create a just economic, social and
cultural order wherein mankind can realize the fundamental human rights in
accordance with the principles of international law. Accordingly, a number of
provisions of the Charter have incorporated human rights. They are as follows:
1. Article 1 of the Charter lays down the purposes of the United Nations. Accordingly,
it is one of the duties of the UN as a world body to take necessary steps to achieve
international co-operation in order to reduce the inequalities of economic, social, and
cultural aspects. It also oversees to promote and encourage the nation-states to
respect the human rights of man and the promotion of all the fundamental freedoms
without any distinction to race, sex, language or religion.
2. Article 8 lays down that the UN shall place no restriction on the eligibility of men
and women to participate in any capacity equally in its principal and subsidiary
organs. According to the provisions of this article, all persons of the world are eligible
to join the UN and serve in its jobs as per the qualifications prescribed for each post.
These jobs, the internships, and various projects that are available with UN are open
to all without any discrimination to race, sex, language or any other ground.
3. According to Article 13, to achieve the purposes and objectives of the Charter,
especially with respect to the promotion of Human Rights, the General Assembly
(since the General Assembly represents all the nations), it has been entrusted with
the task of taking harmonized steps in the promotion of human rights of economic,
social, cultural, educational and fundamental freedoms.
4. According to Article 55, it is the responsibility of the United Nations to take all
necessary legal steps to promote peace and cooperation between the member
countries to attain higher standards of living, full employment and the promotion
economic and social progress;
(a) To suggest solutions to help the states to achieve internationally economic, social,
health, education, and cultural relations of a high standard; and
(b) To promote universal respect for human rights without any discrimination on any
grounds [Link] achieve the objectives stated in the Article 55, the member
states established the Economic and Social Council as one of the significant organs of
the United Nations, in order to assist the General Assembly in realizing the
protection and promotion of human rights.
5. According to Article 76, the member states established a Trusteeship Council as
another principal organ.
6. The above are the most important objectives of UN to achieve the fundamental
freedoms of human beings across the globe. According to Article. 7 the UN will have
six principal organs as discussed above. The function of all the organs is to carry out
the duties towards the nation-states, which includes the promotion of human rights
as their principal duty.
7. If any country disobeys the mandate, especially in the promotion and protection of
human rights, or if any country is under threat from another country, the Security
Council is empowered to take all necessary steps including even to declare a war to
achieve peace and security, which includes the promotion and protection of human
rights. (Article 51)
8. Apart from the above, in accordance with Article 55, the Security Council may
direct the regional organizations ( like European Union, SAARC etc., these
organizations are established by member states of the UN to settle their internal
differences or to promote their relations that are specific to their region only). The
aim of these organizations is to assist the UN and to achieve the economic, social,
cultural aspects and fundamental freedoms of each region quickly and to resolve the
differences between them at the regional level.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Technical

Background
After the establishment of the United Nations, in order to discharge its commitment
for the promotion of Human rights it has established a small committee of nine
members on February 15, 1946 to take steps for the preparation of an International
Bill of Human Rights.
In April that year, Mrs. Roosevelt was appointed as its chairperson. Immediately,
after the constitution, the committee had its preliminary meeting and suggested for
the increase of the members, which was increased to eighteen. (The representatives
of the following countries were appointed. They were Australia, Belgium, Byelorussia
of Soviet Socialist Republic, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Lebanon,
Panama, Philippines, United Kingdom, United States, Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia). On June 21, 1946, the Economic and Social
Council framed the terms of reference on which the committee needed to work for
the drafting of the Universal Declaration.
After the terms of reference to prepare a universal text for the promotion and
protection of human rights, the committee later converted into the Commission on
Human Rights, which functioned till 2006. This was later converted into a
permanent inter-governmental body known as Human Rights Council, in 2006 by
the General Assembly. At present, the strength of the council is 47 states.
The Commission on Human Rights after deliberations appointed, Mr. John Peters
Humphrey of Canada as the drafting committee chairman. John Humphrey prepared
the first draft of the universal text. After that Mr. Rene Cassin, a French Professor of
Law and Judge prepared the final version of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights [UDHR] with 30 Articles on the model of the Napoleon code. In 1968, he
received the Noble Peace Prize for drafting the UDHR.
After the final version of the Draft, the General Assembly had finally adopted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. Since then,
December 10 is celebrated as Human Rights Day to mark the Universal Declaration
and the Fundamental Freedoms of human beings, which were recognized
universally without any discrimination as to race, religion, sex, language and culture.
However, since the declaration has no legal validity and binding nature on the states
under international law, the UN asked the Commission to take further steps to
convert it into two separate legal texts. Further, the Declaration being a mixture of
both Civil and Political Rights; Economic, Social and Cultural rights in one single text,
it would be difficult for the states to implement them.
On this suggestion, the Commission and the various committees after a considerable
laborious work finally prepared the blue print of two texts. These are titled as
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which have been adopted in 1966 and came into force in 1976. The
First covenant has been ratified by 160 states, and 167 (till July 2011) ratified the
Second one. Later both the covenants have been added with additional protocols.
The Civil and Political Rights are referred to as justiciable rights, which are
equivalent to the Fundamental Rights of the Constitution of India. The Economic,
Social and Cultural rights are referred to as non-justiciable rights, and are only
directives to the states which need to be promoted and implemented depending upon
various factors (these are comparable to the Directive Principles of State Policy as
framed by the Constitution which are directives to the State. These rights normally,
can't be challenged in a court of law for their non-implementation. However, in the
recent past, at least more than two decades, the Supreme Court of India in no
uncertain terms made it clear through a number of judgments; if the non-justiciable
rights have a substantive bearing on the enjoyment of fundamental rights, their non-
implementations can be challenged).
The Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has an optional Protocol
adopted in 2008. This protocol allows individuals to complain to the International
Human Rights Mechanism of the UN for the non-implementation of the provisions
of the Charter by the States parties. This is a historic Protocol. For the first time, it
has permitted the individuals to complain against their states, even in the case of
non-implementation of the provisions of the non-justiciable rights, which are
addressed only to States. The complaint may be made to UN High Commissioner on
Human Rights, only after the exhaustion of local remedies including the highest
court's judgments. The protocol is signed by 36 states, and ratified by 3 states. This
has not yet entered into force. Since this is a radical Protocol, certainly it will take
time for states to accept their responsibility to discharge towards their people.
The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has two protocols. The first one was
adopted in 1966 and came into force in 1976. This protocol guarantees to the
individual citizens to complain to the UN any violation of their civil and political
rights by their state, after completing all the formalities and exhausting the remedies
including the decision of the Supreme Court. (This right is guaranteed to the people
of those countries, which ratified the Protocol. Government of India has not yet
ratified; the Indian citizens cannot make any complaint) It has been ratified by 114
fourteen states till July 2011.
The Second Protocol was adopted in 1989 and came into force in 1991. It received 73
ratifications by states parties as on July 2011. This Protocol abolishes death penalty
as a deterrent criminal punishment. Government of India is not a party to this
protocol.

Significance of the UDHR

The Charter of United Nations aim is to protect the Human Rights and freedoms of
the individuals at the international level. In order to implement the mandate of the
States, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration
is nothing but an extension of the ideology of what states parties have conceived in
the Charter.
The adherence to the Declaration in true spirit will bring peace and security.
The Declaration with its non-binding nature has received universal recognition
without any exception and accepted by the whole international community. All the
states - even the communist countries (like former USSR, former Yugoslavia) -which
were skeptical in the beginning, gradually realized the significance and started
defending the declaration.
The regular reference to the Declaration and the development of the provisions
later crystallized into Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, and the adoption of independent texts on various
aspects of human rights. All these texts conferred the status on the declaration as a
part of customary international law.
The Declaration became an extension of the Charter of the United Nations. On
Several Occasions, the various organs of the UN including the Security Council and
the General Assembly quoted its provisions in a number of resolutions and
documents.
The World Conference on Human Rights held at Vienna in 1993 made references
to the UDHR and paid its tributes to it.
 The States parties (especially the developing states, several times made a mention
of their rights and the rights of their people in various areas of cooperation and
concession of varied aspects of law by the developed states) advanced their claims
basing on the provisions of the Declaration.
The International Court of Justice and the municipal courts (especially the highest
court of a country) in a number of cases made significant references to UDHR in
their decisions, led for wide judicial recognition.
In 1978 on its 30th anniversary, 84 States paid tributes to the Declaration in the
Teheran conference of Human Rights.
As a mark of respect to the declaration and its principles, the UN crystallized its
millennium goals basing on the unfulfilled dreams of it. These goals will drive the
states to discharge their responsibilities to accomplish the standards they themselves
set in the declaration.
The extensive recognition and respect given to the declaration universally, and
celebration of December 10 every year by the World Community led scholars to term
it as the Magna Carta of the World, in upholding the rights and fundamental liberties
of the individuals.

Analysis of the Declaration:

The declaration contains a preamble and 30 Articles. The preamble specifies the
objectives and the Articles deal with Civil and Political Rights, Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, while a few articles of this declaration deal with the duties to be
performed by all agents (this includes the states to render their duties towards other
states, to their people and minimum guarantees to the whole mankind wherever they
reside. At the same time, impose legal and moral obligations on the society towards
individuals vis-à-vis individuals towards society and international community). In
other words, the declaration became the cornerstone of international law to achieve
its basic aim and object of securing peace and security, the concept of one world and
to make the world free from the fear of war.
This is evident from the fact that though international law gave birth to the concept
of human rights only six decades ago, in the contemporary era, every branch of
international law has an influence of human rights. Moreover, in crystallizing new
norms to regulate the international relations of states, many a times they incorporate
human rights as the basis. (This is further evident that this declaration, the
onlydocument officially translated by UN in more than 360 languages, to help people,
to practice them easily.)
The continuous adherence and reference to the UDHR on par with the Charter of the
United Nations by member states made it more than a legally binding document.
Even new states who come into existence and become members of the
UN, all of them without any exception have accepted the principles of the Declaration
along with Charter as new members of the international community. The Declaration
has paved the way for the independence of many countries in 60's and 70's.

Preamble of the Declaration

The Preamble of the Declaration states the spirit and significance of the Declaration.
The picture conveys that if the mankind and its creators (namely, states) follow the
Declaration in true spirit, it is easy to achieve peace, security through friendship and
prosper together. This spirit has been stated in the
Declaration, and is explained hereunder in a simple and common language for easy
understanding with some pictures to signify the importance of oneness along with
commentary to each article.
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.
The mankind as a whole, which includes the states and the international community,
have the responsibility at all times to promote the natural and inseparable
personality to uphold the self –respect of every individual without any difference.
The friendly behavior of mankind alone is the basis for upholding the freedom,
justice, and peace on the earth.
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.
The negligence of people, disrespect to the rights of others and the self-interestof the
emperors from ancient to modern times have resulted in a number of wars. This type
of behavior of few individuals as rulers led to a number of revolutions across the
world, and mankind went through a number of difficulties, which ultimately
developed fear in the minds of common man of their existence. They extended
respect and support to their rulers out of fear than with love and affection. This had
brought in distance between the rulers and the people. The tyrannical ambitions of
the rulers, finally led to the evolution of natural rights (see Unit II), which in turn
resulted in establishing democracy and human rights. The ambition of few vested
interests relegated the freedoms of individual and resulted in two World Wars. To
halt the inimical attitude of few individuals, the world leaders have realized that
peace and security to mankind could be established only by guaranteeing equal rights
to express their opinions on any issue freely without fear, and the needs of common
man be met only by guaranteeing human rights without any discrimination.
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 right should be
protected by the rule of law.
As discussed above, if no person is forced to act against his or her will, the scope for
coups or wars and social movements will not be there in the World. In other words,
even in a democratic set up, if any organ of the state or its rulers is not discharging in
their legal duties and show any tendency towards favoritism or disrespect the rights
of people, social movements are bound to develop. (For example, the uneven
development of a country, corruption etc., led for a number of social movements
across the world).
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between
nations.
It is the responsibility of every country to develop harmonious relationship with each
other. To achieve this fundamental principle, states laid their faith and emphasis on
international law to regulate their relations in a peaceful manner. The states too have
duties to respect the territorial integrity, sovereignty of nations and its people
without resorting to any kind of hatred or discrimination on grounds of race, religion,
sex, or language. The harmonious relationship between the states at the international
level only could lead to establish peace and security. With that endurance to bring in
peace and security to mankind, the states have established the UN, and to resolve
their differences in a friendly manner by employing legally permissible methods.
(Normally under international law, the disputes or differences are resolved by
employing any one or all of the methods. These are Negotiation, Mediation,
Conciliation, Arbitration or Judicial Settlement or by war as a last alternative).
In a plain reading, the rights of the individuals and their free exercise, depends on
the friendly relations between nation-states. It is the duty of states to be friendly to
settle their differences and to live in peace, to bloom the personal liberties of
mankind. To achieve this every year, September 21 is celebrated as an International
Day of Peace by states popularly known as World Peace Day.
As a mark of respect to celebrate the Peace Day, a peace bell is rung every year at the
Head Quarters of the United Nations in New York. The bell is cast of coins donated
by children of all continents with an inscription on its sides read as “Long Live
absolute World Peace.” The great cricket star of India, Sachin Tendulkar had donated
the bell. For the donation of this bell, Tendulkar is referred to as the reminder of
human cost of war. Many a times the UN and its organs, and even NGO's around the
world choose famous personalities in the World and appoint them as Ambassadors of
peace to promote the ideals of one world and one humanity through the prism of
human rights.
Whereas the people 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 betterstandards of life in larger freedom.
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation 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
their 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 and their
jurisdiction.
The world leaders have given the name United Nations to the international
organization is a reaffirmation of their concern for peace, friendship, to live with
dignity and to promote peace and security. The United Nations represents
togetherness of the people across the world in spite of differences in language,
culture and other issues that exist between the West and the East. The main concern
and idea of the leaders by establishing an organization is to make it a true global
organization symbolizing the spirit of mankind as a single entity, without any
difference whatsoever it may be. Accordingly, the UN works to achieve the objectives
of the preamble of the Declaration in order to end the miseries of various
disadvantaged cross section of people like women, minorities, children, disabled, etc.,
to promote the concept of oneness among all. (For the various activities of the UN
visit, the UN web site [Link] In the pages of UN, one could see
the various areas wherein the UN involved itself through people across the globe to
wipe out the tears of millions of people on various fronts and to bring them to the
main stream of life of the international and national societies. The money spent on
all these activities is only the annual contribution of the member states shows the
determination that the states have to develop the better standards of life).
The pictures represent the Eight significant Millennium Goals adopted at the end of
the Millennium in 2000 by the United Nations and Members of UN made a pledge to
achieve them. The eight pictures represent eight objectives which need to be achieved
by the UN by engaging people across the world. For this purpose it conducts a
number of programmes and offers a variety of internships to young students and
offers projects for research in every area. In fact the Science and Technology field has
a broad scope in UN to associate themselves to achieve the objectives of the UN. In
one sentence, everyone in their field could contribute for a better standard of life and
be associated with the UN. The pictures below and the symbols stand for the goals
which are stated:
Goal: 1 Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Goal: 2 Achieve Universal Primary Education
Goal: 3 Promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment
Goal: 4 Reduce Child Mortality
Goal: 5 Improve Maternal Health
Goal: 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Goal: 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Goal: 8 Develop Global partnerships for Development
The above eight are the official goals and pictures developed by the UN. To monitor
the progress of each Goal and the steps to be taken for their betterment, the UN
recently entered into an agreement with technology giant Google as a partner to
assist the UN.
To achieve the objectives of the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly
adopted the Declaration. After the adoption of this declaration and to live up to its
expectations, international law has undergone a number a change in its approach
towards the rights of the states and extending protection to the individuals. The
progressive codification of International Law of Human Rights, the number of
conventions, declarations, Covenants, conferences and protocols have had a
significant impact on the approach of the States and the International Organizations
including International Monetary Fund and World Bank. However, as there are
differences and self-interests that we human beings are having, the states do have
their own policy perspective to protect and develop their own people. To end all
kinds of discrimination, the UN works to achieve them fully as stated in the Charter
and the Declaration through the principles of international law.
Article 1 (Free and Equal in Dignity and Right) :
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.
A plain reading of the text indicates that all the persons born have equal rights and
are entitled to dignity and respect without any distinction. However, from a strict
socio-legal perspective, it needs an analytical perspective.
From the established political philosophy, all persons born in any society are equal in
all respects in the eyes of law. No discrimination is permissible to one another in a
society and they need to ensure all types of rights and freedoms, both in the
international and national legal scenario. However, a close examination of the
provisions of the Article amply makes it clear, that due to economic, social and
cultural conditions, the concept of equality has its own restrictions, which are
legitimate in their exercise. Freedom also has its own limitations. For example, in the
Indian context, all persons above 18 years of age are entitled to exercise their
franchise or right to vote without any limitations. There should not be any
restrictions on the exercise of this right. This may be symbolized as political equality
that is recognized legally, but depending on their economic situation, the life style of
people may vary.
It is the responsibility of the state to extend concession to the needy sections of
people of the polity in order to bring them on par with other developed sections in
terms of socio, economic and cultural perspective. The Millennium goals of the UN
also try to achieve the minimum economic equality and strive to eliminate poverty.
This means, though there exist differences on economic, social, and cultural front, in
the eye of law all the citizens are equal and for the state the potential of every
individual is the prime concern. The concept of gender equality is also included in
this article, which places men and women on an equal footing in all walks of life.
Further, the issue of equality does not mean that the mental and physical capacities
of all the people are one and the same. The development of personality depends upon
the environment that a person grew up and the conditions in which they live. Mental
maturity and the intellectual capacities mainly depend upon the surroundings in
which they live in and the cultural perspectives that they adopt. It is the duty of state,
and the international community to provide the basic necessary facilities to grow in a
friendly atmosphere and strive to increase the earning capacities of each individual.
In this regard, it is the responsibility of every individual of the society to contribute
their might for the betterment of all sections of the people. Hence, depending on the
socio-economic, cultural conditions, a state may frame its policy formulations
according to the needs of every section of people of the society.
The picture brings forth the idea that through love and affection alone one can help
to achieve equality. Inspite of economic, social, psychological, physical inabilities of a
person, they need to be cared for by the society, and have to be treated with love and
respect to enable them to fully develop their personality. This being the objective, the
emphasis of the
Article is that, every individual has a duty to respect the dignity and rights of every
other person for the progressive development and realization of human rights, which
is the main thrust of International Law of Human Rights.

Article 2 (Prohibition of discrimination):

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.
From the above pictures and the provisions of the Article, no person has lesser rights,
irrespective of their status for any reason whatsoever may be. This means whether a
person belongs to a developed, developing, under developed, less developed or land
locked states (a state without a sea border like Nepal or Bhutan) in international law
would be treated equally. Further, in international law different types of states are
recognized, namely, Micro, Macro, Non-Self-Governingterritories, dependent
territories; Insurgent and belligerent states (movements where people's
organizations at times control a territory and defy the sovereignty or people fighting
for establishing a new country so on and so forth. This Article's aim is whatever the
type of government or territory, whether it may be Europe, America, Asia, or Africa,
black or white, child, young person, women, or man, disabled, minorities, all are
equal and have equal rights. In the application of law, the international community
or a state cannot show any kind of discrimination. Further, due to internal problems
or for any other reason, a person flees from his country to take shelter in another
country referred as refugee also cannot be shown any discrimination by such country,
where in they seek shelter.
The differences on any of the grounds mentioned in the Article such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property,
birth or other status, normally evolves because of lack of basic understanding of law
and moral values of a society. Due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the
basic tenets of law, justice, equality, dignity, liberty, ethical,
moral, values and rights (as discussed in units I & II), makes one to relegate the
rights to a secondary position. This intern, will bring in all the differences and
miseries. In such cases, it is the duty of the international community to provide the
mechanism to augment the values, and extend the necessary concessions to the
extent necessary for their upliftment.

Article 3 (Right to Life, Liberty, and Security):

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
The Article is the briefest one in the entire Declaration. However, it is the most
important one among all the rights. This implies that the international community
and the states in their constitutions have to take the responsibility to provide a life
wherein the people meet their minimum requirements of life. These are especially,
food, clothing and shelter. These are the basic requirements to lead a life and able to
exercise their rights freely. The UN in order to provide these necessities adopted a
number of steps and legal documents requesting the states to follow suit. Nationally,
to provide such equality, the Great Son of India, namely, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
has penned the provisions of the constitution to bringing social harmony. A duty has
been casted on the state to discharge its responsibility to provide facilities to lead a
life free from all infirmities. This provisionis continuously interpreted by the
Supreme Court of India (Article 21 which is similar to the Article 3 of UDHR) with
progressive outlook and expanded the fundamental rights in a number of cases.
Extending the provisions of the Article, the UN adopted the Protocol II to Civil and
Political rights abolishing death penalty. The ideology of the UN behind the adoption
of this protocol is that since a person is born, no one including law has a right to take
away the life of an individual under no circumstances. Even if a person committed a
grave offense, the punishment may be extended to life time imprisonment rather
than taking away the life of a person. Another important objective of the article is
that, in case if it comes to knowledge of a court subsequently that a sentenced person
is innocent, then there won't be any chance to bring back the life of the person.
Accordingly, death penalty be abolished even in the rarest of rarer cases. With this
objective, to stop politics and to try the offences of even former rulers of a country.
UN has adopted the Rome Statue establishing the International Criminal Court to
have an independent, impartial trial of the person without any kind of illegal motives
of states at the cost of life, liberty and security.
Further in order to achieve life, liberty, and security of person at all times, at the
national level the UN requested the states to establish National Human Rights
Commissions in every country to protect them from the violations of human rights.
Article 4 (Prohibition of Slavery):
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
In human history, slavery occupies a special role. It was in existence from ancient to
modern times. Even in the era of globalization and information technology, of
contemporary era, slavery is in existence and is in practice in different forms. The
main forms of slavery are chattel slavery, bonded labour, beggar, human trafficking,
and forced labour.
Chattel Slavery means, human beings are treated as animals and sold in a market
like goods. Once a person buys another person, as owner, such person will have all
the rights, and the purchased person had to undertake all the jobs entrusted by the
purchaser.
Bonded Labour: If any person or his family is having any debt to any rich person
and unable to repay such debt, the entire family works for rich man without any
wages to repay their debt.
Human Trafficking: It means transporting human beings (especially women,
children) from one country to another country or one place to another place for
exploiting their labour and body for various purposes.
Forced Labour: According to International Labour Organization’s (ILO)
convention, on Forced Labour, 1932, any work or service, which is extracted from
any person under the threat of penalty, and for extracting the work without voluntary
consent of such person constitutes forced labour. According to statistics of ILO there
are about over 12 million people working as forced labour, in the world.
According to the article prostitution, captivity of children, child soldiers, selling
women and children due to abject poverty etc., also constitute as the modern means
of forced labour and slavery.
In order to prevent various forms of forced labour and slavery, in 1926 the League of
Nations (the predecessor organization of the United Nations) adopted a Convention
on prevention of Slavery. Expanding its provisions, the UN in 1956 adopted a
supplementary Convention to it, including the modern means or forms of practices,
which may lead to slavery. The UN apart from the conventions on slavery adopted a
number of other conventions on prostitution, child trafficking, abduction, etc., in
order to prevent any kind of deprivation of life, liberty, and security to human person
in any form. The UN declared 2 December, of every year as the anti-Slavery nd day.
International law strictly prohibits states to practice any such practice that leads to
slavery of any kind. Articles 23 & 24 of the Constitution of India prohibits all types of
slavery and human trafficking in India.
This Article again highlights that until and unless the mankind practices sincerely the
spirit of common brotherhood in its fullest extent, whatever number of legal
measures taken at the international and national levels, they remain only on paper,
and the rights of millions of individuals are nullified. Hence, it is the duty of mankind,
not to think of one's rights and comfort alone, but to think of the rights of others and
to extend protection to the extent possible to prevent any act that may lead to slavery
or deprivation of life and liberty of others.

Article 5 (Prohibition of Torture):

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or
punishment.
According to the UN Convention on torture and other inhuman criminal degrading
treatment 1984, torture means, any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether
physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as
obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for
an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or
intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on
discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the
instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person
acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from,
inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
Torture is another important aspect in the violation of one's human rights. This may
be inflicted in various ways and means. In this, the punishment is employed by
various methods. The methods may be physical, psychological, mental, etc. They are
employed either to get information from a person, or to harass a person as revenge
by a powerful person against a weak person. At times, even for sadistic pleasure or
for no reason also it is employed. Many a times this is employed by Law enforcing
agencies’ against the criminals or an accused to get information in the investigation
of a crime. Many a times men employee torture against women.
Torture is prohibited by international law of human rights. The United Nations on
December 10,1984, adopted a Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment banning its practice in any form. The Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action 1993, otherwise referred to as the World
Congress of Human Rights condemned torture in unequivocal terms.
Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment constitutes as a form of torture. This
includes to cover a particular situation depending on the type of punishment that is
inflicted. For example: Corporal punishment, interment in dark cells, restraining the
movement of a person by keeping him in chains, employing any method to create
fear in the person within visible form of methods, use of drugs on prisoners,
castration or practices, genital mutilation, depriving the basic necessities, especially
depriving food and water, solitary confinement, or any other form of methods that
are employed against a individual or group of persons, constitutes as torture.
To prevent torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, the UN constituted a
committee of ten experts elected by the member states. The committee monitors the
implementation of the Convention and makes recommendations to be followed by
the states. The summary of observations and recommendations are regularly
submitted to the General Assembly. To prevent any kind of prohibitory activities, and
blatant acts of the states towards their citizens, in recent times, international
agencies like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund incorporated
practices of torture as one of the grounds to refuse loans to countries. India, enacted
legislations to prevent torture and consider it as a criminal offence under sections
498 A of IPC.

Article 6 (Right to recognition as person before the law):

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
This means, any person irrespective of their economic, political, social or cultural
status has human rights that are recognized universally. Accordingly, a citizen
belongs to every country needs to be treated on equal basis at least for the enjoyment
of basic minimum rights. A non-citizen of a country also has certain fundamental
rights during their stay in another country and no deprivation is permissible.
For example., X a citizen of India travels to England on any purpose, during his
travel across various countries, X has to be treated with utmost respect and dignity to
his personality, and be permitted to enjoy life and liberty, according to the law of the
land. Refugees, migrant workers, and non-citizens of a country or physically,
mentally infirmed people (disabled) have to be protected. The responsibility lies on
the individuals and the society also. No deprivation of life and liberty is permissible
under any circumstances. The Charter of the United Nations clearly states that we
the people of the United Nations, which means, people of the world as natural
persons are same and equal in all respects in the eye of law. The UNESCO and other
organs of the UN in regular intervals train the personnel of various states and
suggest the ways and means to prevent any kind of violation.
In order to achieve equality before law, a state is entitled to extend any concession to
any group of people depending on various factors. At the same time, people who are
under a protective umbrella of state also need to remember that their protection or
concessions may be withdrawn by the state at any time, if in its opinion the purposes
for which the concessions extended to any group of people are achieved. Accordingly,
to bridge the gap between developed and developing states, a number of concessions
are granted in various areas in their relations with each other.
However, a number of derogatory practices are reported regularly, around the world.
Any derogatory practice that take's place against any individual or group of persons
in any country is highly condemnable. The sum and substance of the Article is to
inform the individuals that every one of us have to exercise their rights with
responsibility to promote and respect the equality, dignity, life and liberty of every
individual.

Article 7 (Equality before the law) :

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal
protection of the law. All are entitled to equal promotion against any discrimination
in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
This Article is an extension of Articles 2 and 6. According to this Article, under no
circumstances, whatever may be the status of a person, all are equal in the eye of law.
At times, in order to promote the rights of certain weaker sections or vulnerable
groups like women, children, disabled, minorities or people belonging to various
social backward sections privileges are extended for their development as a basis for
their protection development by the law of the land of a country, cannot be
considered as unequal.
This Article corresponds to article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which has inculcated
the principle of Equality. However, due to lack of proper understanding of the spirit
of common brotherhood of the world, or relegating their ethical and moral duties
temporarily people across the world practice a number of derogatory practices
against each other, to protect their own interests at the cost of the life and liberty of
others. This type of illegal motives many a time leads to unnecessary frictions among
individuals and result in as obstacles for development.
The indirect caution of the Article is that no one is to be treated unequal in the eye of
law. This is the duty of the states to implement the spirit of international law and the
Charter of the United Nations, which they themselves adopted and promised to fulfill.
Along with the States, we the people of the United Nations too have the responsibility
to achieve the common brotherhood, spirit of international law and human rights in
true spirit, as partners of a state.

Article 8 (Right to an effective remedy) :

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for
acts violating the fundamental rights guaranteed to him by the constitution or law.
This Article has to be read, in conjunction with the previous two Articles. Avery
important word of these articles is "everyone" Accordingly no distinction be made by
a state between citizens, foreigners, or stateless persons in the enforcement of their
rights as a person before law. The aim of this article is to provide a remedy for any
person through domestic courts in case of violation of their constitutional or legal
rights. In such cases a remedy may be claimed only under domestic law of that
country but not under the Universal Declaration.
In a similar fashion, if any crime committed by anybody which constitutes as a crime
under international law, international tribunals need to deal with such criminals.
However, since there was no such mechanism available to try the crimes of
international criminals (such as former rulers, Internation criminals, or terrorists),
states used to constitute ad hoc tribunals to try their offences many a times, these
tribunals used to be partial in their approach. In order to prevent such abuses, the
UN established the International Criminal Court in 2002 at The Hague, The
Netherlands. A number of states including India and USA etc. are not parties to this
court's Jurisdiction. Further, in 2005 in the General Assembly adopted a declaration
with a set of principles and guidelines to be followed by states to protect the human
rights of International Criminals too.
Though a good number of states are yet to become parties to the Rome Statute, it is
expected that with the help of the States, the steps taken by UN, the victims will now
find a place of justice in upholding their rights.
The International Criminal Court, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Article 9 (Prohibition of Arbitrary Arrest) :

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
This is the first Article followed by the subsequent two articles in the declaration,
guaranteeing the life and liberty of an individual from the criminal law excesses that
are often committed by the executive authorities of a country. According to the
provision of the article, no person can be arrested on suspicion, or to keep him in jail,
or to export a person to an undisclosed destination, without the knowledge of
judiciary.
This is the general rule of international law and need to be obeyed by the states
parties without any deviation.
This Article guarantee an individual's freedom from an arbitrary arrest, detentaon or
transport to an undisclosed destination by law enforcing agencies on a mere
suspicion in exercies of their criminal law powers.
Preventive detention means, taking a person into police custody to prevent him from
doing a crime. Many a times, even to prevent the exercise of democratic rights, police
take people into custody on the name of law and order. Preventive detention legally
means detention of a person without trial and conviction by a court, but on the
suspicion in the mind of the executive of any act of crime. for example. during the
freedom struggle, the British government used to arrest people on flimsy grounds
and detain them for years together without a trial; sometimes even used to send
them to undisclosed destination as exile.
Preventive detention is a common feature in many democracies including the USA,
Britain, and Canada. However, in these countries it is exercised only during
war time but not in peace time. In India, the Constitution of India has envisaged such
a situation for reasons of security, maintenance of peace and good order and or to
maintain supplies and services essential to the community. In India, the Legislature
is empowered to enact a legislation on preventive detention authorizing the executive
to take necessary steps. However, many a times, the abuse of power by law enforcing
agencies constitutes as a violation of human rights. The abuse of power by law
enforcing agencies lead to a boiling point, where in a number of undertrial accused
persons are languishing in jails for years together without a judicial remedy. Taking
this situation into consideration, the Supreme Court of India laid down number of
guidelines from time to time to be followed by the law enforcing authorities to
prevent the abuse of human rights of innocent people. (D.K. Basu V. State of West
Bengal, AIR 1997 SC610., Subesing V. State Haryana, AIR 2006SC 117, Ramlila
Maidan, V. Home Secretary, MANU/SC/0131,2012, 3rd Report of National Police
Commision.)
This Article impose an obligation on the states, and the civil societies across the
world to prevent any type of misuse of powers especially in detention. Detention
literally and physically leads to violation of a number of human rights such as right to
freedom of movement, speech, life and liberty etc. Guantanamo Bay shown in the
picture was converted as a Jail in 2002 by the US Government to exile and punish
the war prisoners of Afghanistan and Iraq. The treatment meted out by the prisoners
was deplorable from the perspective of human rights. The situation was comparable
to that of the practice adopted by the British Government to many Indians in the
Kalapani Jail in Andaman & Nicobar Islands during the freedom struggle.
Article 19 (Freedom of Opinion and Expression) :
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.
This is an important pillar of democracy. According to the provisions, media needs to
be free from the clutches of the state to impart information and to express ideas of
people freely. This alone could help to
realize the aims of good governance of a democracy. This right guarantees free
speech and bans fear of expression. However, any excess use of the freedom is not
permissible. This includes write, speech and air the views of a person through any
mode of communication that is feasible. Basing on this freedom only the right to
information has been born. These freedoms though advocate liberty of an individual
to express freely, at the same time impose a responsibility on every one of us to
exercise the rights with due caution. At the same time, necessary restrictions may be
imposed by state through legal regulation in order to protect the life, liberty , decency
and other freedoms of all the individuals.

Article 20 (Freedom of Assembly and Association) :

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an
association.
The previous article, and this one are having an inter link with each other. Freedom
of association is one of the most important rights to express their opinion either
individually or collectively. The International Labour organization has adopted a
number of conventions and resolutions guaranteeing the freedom of workers to form
an association to express their legitimate demands and to secure justice from the
inimical activities of their employers. Many marches including freedom marched
play a vital role in keeping pressure on a government to discharge its constitutional
obligations. On the other hand, a government many a times employ methods to
restrict such movements. These may be justified at times but not always.

Article 21 (Participation in Government) :

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
The will of the people shall be 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 be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
This article reiterates the principle of Abraham Lincoln, the former President of US
who stated Government of the people, for the people, by the people. In a democracy,
there is no place for anybody to claim that some are superiors by occupying the
ministerial posts. All the officers, ministers and the head of a state have to bear in
mind at all times, that they are only representing the people who have elected them
to govern for a particular period. It is the democracy alone which could win the
hearts of the people and only through democracy, one can be able to render their best
for the progressive augmentation of human rights.
To sustain the spirit of democracy, it is the duty of the state to conduct elections from
grass root level (panchayats in a village) to Parliament at regular periodic intervals.
No deviation is permissible in any manner, which may lead to dictatorship. The
recent agitations in Middle East are the example wherein people may not allow any
government to overpower their rights with an iron hand. It is the duty of every
individual to take part in the governance in whatever manner; they could contribute,
according to the capabilities of each individual. It indirectly brings in the duty that
since the state and its property belongs to the people, all the people in every country
have a duty not to resort to violence or destroy the property of the state. The peaceful
raise of voice alone can bring in change. This article indirectly advocates "ahimsa"
principle of Mahatama Gandhi to be followed at all times to establish peace and
security on the globe and to realize the human rights in a democratic manner.

Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

To exercise the claim rights (civil and political rights), and to enjoy the other basic
rights of life, liberty, and equality, these constitute as the most vital rights. They are
directives to the state to fulfill the wishes of the people and provide the methods and
means for the sustainability of mankind. However, in many countries including India,
judiciary started interpreting them as part and parcel of claim rights. The Indian
Supreme Court in no uncertain terms expressed that if the non-justiciable (Economic,
Social and cultural rights) rights have a bearing on the exercise of the justiciable
rights (civil and Political rights) they assume the character of claim rights, and it thus
constitutes as a duty of the state to extend protection. But, these being only directives
or non-justiciable in their sphere, their character cannot be changed. If at any time
the judiciary or any other organ (mostly international organs) directs them to
implement, states many a times come up with the plea of economic, social and
cultural aspects may hamper their implementation. All of us need these rights, and it
is the duty of everyone both at the international and national level to strive for the
achievement of these rights. The success of implementation and the enjoymentof
these rights alone guarantee the freedoms of the individuals and could lead us to
establish a conflict free world.

Article 22 (Economic, Social and cultural Rights):

Everyone as a member of society has the right to social security and is entitled to
realization through national effort and international cooperation and in accordance
with the organization and resources of each state of the economic social and cultural
rights indispensable for his dignity and the freedom of his personality.
From this article till Article 27 deals with the economic, social and cultural rights.
These articles aim to realize the necessities of mankind. These articles are the basic
articles for the full development of mankind and the realization of human rights.
Though these articles are placed as second part in the declaration, later it was
realized by the UN that without the basic needs man might not be able to exercise his
civil and political rights fully. Accordingly, at the time of implementation of
covenants, the Economic, Social, Cultural Rights covenant became the first and the
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights became the second.
While the UN considering the independence obtained by many states in the fifties
and sixties the plight of their people and the economic scenario in which most of
them were placed, to guarantee the rights of economic, social and cultural nature, it
took steps at quick succession and adopted the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural rights as the basic one in 1966. These few articles were expanded
in the Covenant in detail, which have had a great impact on every branch of
knowledge, and later on a number of agreements, treaties including the agreements
of trade.
According to this article, it is the priority of the nation states at the individual level
and at the international level to strive for the promotion of the basic needs of the
individuals at all times. The resources of the world need to be shared by everybody
equally without any vested interest. No state or group of states (particularly the
developed states) could claim unilaterally sovereignty over the resources.
Accordingly, to achieve the spirit of the convention, the Outer Space, the High Seas,
the Antarctic, and other zones have been declared as no man's land. In these areas,
no state can explore and exploit the resources without a license from the UN. During
the licensing period, states or their representative has to explore the resources, and
pay the number of resources fixed at the award of the contract to the UN. The UN
will in turn distribute the resources to the poorer states to develop economically.
The spirit of this article led for the evolution of reservations or concessions at the
international level long back by the developed states to developing states in their
numerous relations. These concessions include in trade, sharing of resources,
scienceand technology, and every possible other area to make them self-sufficient to
participate in an equal manner. The same philosophy has been carried out by many
states at the national level to people those who are in need of the support of the state.
These rights are part of several constitutions including India. These are referred to as
Directive Principles of State Policy in India.
This article further asserts that it is the duty of national governments to provide
minimum social security to every individual particularly, with respect to basic
requirements like education, health, and minimum maintenance allowance etc. The
article one side advocates self-development, determination and on the other hand,
imposes a responsibility on every stake holder to maintain balance between
development, growth, and sustainability of resources for the future generations.

Article 23 (Right to Work) :

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 worth 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 his
interests.
This article is another important one among the various economic, social, and
cultural rights. The other rights in this category, such as right to food, right to life,
right to health, right to social security are positive rights, whereas right to work has
both positive and negative elements. The negative aspect of it imposes a
responsibility on every one, to earn their livelihood only by moral and legal means.
Any type ofwork chosen by a person needs the approval of the society, and the law of
the land. Further, it imposes another restriction on individual to be involved in the
process of development of society by contributing their share of knowledge to the
state for its economic progress. There is no place for anybody to expect their
livelihood without engaging themselves in some sort of work according to their
capacity. At the same time, it imposes a responsibility indirectly on everyone to take
care of children and older people through their earning capacity. Furthermore, in
order to claim human dignity, it prohibits such works, which are inhumane in nature
like manual scavenging etc. as works to be undertaken.
In the positive side, it advocates that work is a basic human right. This implies that
everyone has to participate in the production and other activities of income
generation of the society and state. By such participation, it automatically brings in
an obligation on everyone to respect the other person, whatever, the work that they
like to engage in. It is the duty of all employers to pay the remuneration which is
equivalent to their daily living as per the law of each country.
In order to promote this right and to form as association as discussed above
(Arts. 18-20) play a crucial role. The UN through the International Labour
organization monitors various aspects relating to the rights and obligations of the
employers and employees. The ILO has a unique structure among all the organs of
the UN. It has a tripartite structure, wherein the States, employers and the workers
together participate in the decision-making process. In order to improve the
economic and social quality of work, and social security apart from all other organs,
the Economic and Social Council regularly monitors the work and frames the policy
formulations to be adopted by the states.
This article further, guarantees the right to work of migrant workers either within the
territorial frontiers of a country or people who flee from one country to another
country due to physical, economic, social, or political reasons. In order to protect the
rights of migrant workers, the UN in 1990 adopted a Convention on the Protection of
the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which came into
force in 2003. The Committee of Migrant Workers coordinates with the member
countries and the UN bodies to ensure their rights. However, it is to be noted that
many of the labour welfare conventions including the above one are not ratified by
many states including India.

Article 24 (Right to Rest and Leisure) :

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure including reasonable limitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay.
This article ensures the policies adopted by the International Labour Organization
that every employee and worker have to have limited number of work hours.
According to the regulations of the ILO, no person is employed more than 8 hours
work per day. However, it differs from the categories of people up to a maximum of
12 hours per day. In the case of women and children, they cannot be employed in
certain avocations, which are dangerous to their health. Children below the age of 14
years cannot be employed. They have to have not more than 6 hours of work for a
day. Women and children cannot be employed after 7 p.m. in the evening. All the
workers need to have weekly holidays and other holidays as per the law of each
country or region. These provisions will be applicable to all types of employees
especially strictly be implemented in the case of regular employees' who are on pay
roll of an employment. All workers are eligible for compensation of work, in case of
accident or death, and for pension and other benefits after retirement.

Article 25 (Right to an adequate standard of living and health) :

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.
This article highlights the significance of basic minimum needs that every individual
requires to lead a life to satisfy the necessities such as food, clothing, household
requirements, and common minimum standards of water, light, sanitation, pollution
free environment,
health, and education. This article again reiterates that everyone be provided with
work, and to enjoy the freedoms. This article has a link with many other provisions of
the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It reiterates that it is the duty of
the society and the state to provide the necessary means of livelihood. The state has
an onerous responsibility to encourage the development of science and technology,
which are highly essential tools for the progressive development. In this regard, to
help the states to achieve the minimum standards of living to provide for people at
the national level, the UN adopted a number of international instruments. These
instruments in turn, guaranteed the right to free exploitation of resources, and right
to self-determination. In fact, this right has further augmented the right to
development as another important component.
This article imposes an obligation on the states to achieve adequate levels of
nutrition, to eliminate hunger, and malnutrition. The various organs of the UN and
the other bodies including International Monetary Fund and World Bank have an
obligation to extend sufficient loans to developing states at minimal interest rates.
Among all the organs of the UN, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) regularly engage a number of
researchers to evolve strategies to meet the required basic needs.
The UNDP has launched a programme called Habitat. Accordingly, the programmes
implemented by the states are reviewed periodically. Basing on the review, remedial
mechanism is evolved to rectify the defects, if any are there, to achieve the eight
important goals of the Millennium. Under the programme, UNDP involves a number
of players (which include, states, individuals and NGO's) as partners to implement its
ideals. These programmes are monitored by the nation-states through the Annual
sessions of the General Assembly, and frames the agenda every year to achieve
Focusing on the ways Are we ready to achieve the [Link] means by UNDP
Millennium goals
It further highlights the significance of right to health including the prevention of
communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and other common diseases. The clarion call
of this article imposes a duty on everyone, to use the resources carefully without any
wastage, and protect them for the future generations. It also reminds everyone to ban
illegal trafficking of human beings and the cruelest profession of prostitution in
whatever form or method that is in existence. This article further guarantee, the
rights of people of third sex. It imposes a responsibility on every one of us not to
adopt or resort to any derogatory practices that affect the life, liberty, and freedom of
others at any time.
It also imposes a responsibility to protect the rights of mentally infirm people, old
people, and all others who have no source of income generating capacity to be taken
care by the society. If a state is unable to provide employment of any kind, it is the
duty of the state to pay a minimum honorarium to lead a life.
A great majority of population in many of the developing states are poor. It is the
responsibility of these states to evolve policies to provide better living conditions to
their population to wipe out the tears from every human eye as parties to a number
of human rights instruments. Along with the states, we the people of the United
Nations (especially the rich and other economically sound people including the
private corporations) have also an onerous duty to share our resources to the extent
possible to assist the people in need and contribute our might for the development of
society, and international community as members. In fact, many non-
governmentalOrganizations, philanthropists are already involved in rendering their
best. However, they are not adequate to meet the growing demands of people. It is
the duty of every one of us to render our best in extending a helping hand to the best
possible extent.

Article 26 (Right to Education) :

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 [Link] article confers the basic right to education to everyone. According
to this, education should serve the purpose for which it is to pursue. This conjoins
the saying and the philosophy advocated by Swami Vivekanand educating ourselves
with values, morals and with a particular purpose to serve the needs of the society
and as well oneself. Knowledge is inherent in every body. It can be sharpened only
when it is tapped in a proper perspective. This article emphasis the importance of
educationas a tool to enrich people to enjoy their rights guaranteed both nationally
and internationally. Accordingly, it aims to achieve the following goals. They are:
a) Education to everyone alone promotes the strengthening of respect and helps for
the
promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
b) The full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity could
be
achieved only when the significance of human person is realized
c) It helps to understanding, tolerance, promotes gender equality and friendship with
all other human beings across the world.
d) It promotes compassionate behavior towards other vulnerable groups, such as
refugees, mentally and physically infirm people, old aged persons, children, and third
sex and socially economically culturally disadvantaged sections, and promote to end
racist, linguist, religious, etc.
e) It enables all people to take part freely and effectively in the development of
society
and states, economically, politically, socially, legally and culturally.
f) Education alone provides a goal to achieve the objectives of human rights, by
inculcating values, morals, and ethical perspectives of mankind.
g) It enables to achieve the United Nations and the Objective of international law to
establish peace and security on the globe.
In order to achieve these main goals which, contribute for the furtherance of
common brotherhood and one world concepts, the United Nations Education,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formulates a number of policies and
programmes to help the states to achieve cent percent literacy. The UN Millennium
Summit and the World Conference also highlighted the significance in no uncertain
terms. Accordingly, the UN declared 2005-2014 as the Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development. It hopes to achieve literacy to a maximum extent. This
article further highlights that though parents have the right to choose the kind of
education that their children have to undertake, this doesn't mean that they have an
absolute right to force the kind of education against the wishes of their children. In
tune with the policy perspectives of the UN and other international organizations,
the Government of India has adopted the Right to Education Act 2010, making
education as a compulsory aspect for every citizen of India.
Article 27 (Right to Culture) :
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 product of which he is the [Link]
UNESCO has a specific instruction to achieve the objects of this article. It has
adopted a number of conventions dealing with various avocations for the promotion
of cultural and scientific activities. According to this article, no one has a right to
degrade the culture or any aspect of cultural perspective including language under
any circumstances. Every culture of every society needs to be honored, respected,
and be promoted. The knowledge acquired through scientific and technological
inputs need to be useful for the advancement of the rights and fundamental freedoms
of mankind. It imposes an obligation on the states and individuals to share their
scientific and technological skills for the development of mankind in whatever way it
is [Link] this regard, to promote the scientific and technological advancement,
and to encourage individuals across the world, actively to involve in, for the
promotion and dissemination of knowledge, the Intellectual property rights
recognized by international law constitute as human rights, but not as monopoly or
proprietary rights. The limited protection given to individuals is only in recognition
of their hard work, for the promotion and advancement of scientific and
technological knowledge. The recognition and such strict resume alone motivate
individuals to undertake research for the furtherance of the development of the
mankind and resources of the world. This provision is an extension the previous
article of right to education as a human [Link] article makes it sure that the
advancement of science and technology is only for the welfare of society in general
and mankind in particular. Any advancement of science and technology that creates
danger to the mankind is prohibited. In fact, international law of disarmament
imposes a responsibility on states not to use their lethal and dangerous weapons,
which may wipe out the mankind as a whole. It further reiterates, science and
technology as a part and parcel of education and cultural human rights any invention
should subserve the interests of mankind as a whole. Accordingly, science &
technology and practitioners of it has a wider responsibility to advance their
knowledge to help the mankind to sustain peace and security and integrate with the
objectives of the international community.
Article 28 (Social and International Order) :
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
This is the most important article of the Declaration. This article has both positive
and negative aspects on the international community as a whole. On the positive side,
it ensures the freedom of life and liberty to be enjoyed by every person as a subject of
international community without any discrimination whatsoever it may be.
On the negative side, it casts a responsibility on the nation-states to discharge their
responsibilities, which they have voluntarily accepted to abide by the principles of
international law. This article further, imposes responsibility on the international
actors namely states, to evolve policy perspectives, developmental schemes and the
necessity to evolve methods and techniques to share the resources of the world on an
equitable basis. In spite of generations of concentrated international action to
development, the gap that exists between the rich and poor countries is widening
instead of bridging it up. It brings forth the onerous task of the international
community, including the UN to evolve more stringent steps and policies to evolve in
nurturing the aspirations of the mankind, in the realization of fundamental freedoms
for which they promised to live through international law.
It further reiterates that it is the duty of the states, to abide by the principles of
international law without any deviation, and observe the principles of various
instruments of human rights by concentrated dialogue to adhere to all the
instruments without resorting to reservations. It also imposes a responsibility on the
states, to stop all destructive efforts to human environment, peace, and security by
strict adherence to the principles of international law of human rights.
At the same time, it imposes an obligation on the people of each country to press for
resolution of disputes between nation states, and to observe the human rights
standards, which they have drafted or adopted. This means, the significance of
Human Rights Education is an important aspect for the world community, to achieve
the objectives of international law of human rights. It is the onerous duty of states to
change their behavioral patterns with a common goal to wipe the tears of mankind
and to save the succeeding generations not only from the scourge of war but from the
economic, social and cultural inequality.
Article 29 (Duties and Limitations):
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 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 [Link] article is the crucial one and the most
important one to be followed by mankind, to realize and to enjoy the benefits of
rights that are guaranteed in the Declaration. This reiterates the significance of
duties that play an important role in the promotion, exercise and the realization of
human rights. This article again establishes the link between economic, social, and
cultural rights and civil, and political rights, on one hand, on the other hand, the
practice that the international community and individuals around the world need to
observe strictly for the promotion of dignity of life, liberty, and freedom of every
individual. An analysis of this article as discussed in unit two; imposes only
responsibilities and not an automatic sanction of rights to be alone enjoyed. This
further reiterates that the provisions stated in article 28 need to be strictly adhered
by states in the better augmentation of the resources of the world community. This
article recognized the principle of Lord Gautham Buddha that there is an inherent
link exists between law, society, individual, and the world community. It is our duty
to remember always that there is a continuous inter-relationship, indivisibility,
interdependence, love and affection exists between individuals. The compassionate
exercise of these aspects towards mankind with tolerance alone helps to achieve the
full realization of human rights. The contemporary owes of the mankind are not
because of someone, but because of every one of us for not adhering to duties, or
sincerely discharging obligations that we owe as partners of society in the national
and international community.
The second paragraph imposes restrictions on the states too as actors of
international community. States too as legal persons representing their people have
to bear in always that it is their behavior at a higher place as sovereigns will only
guide, and establish responsible national communities. They need to discharge their
obligations and settle their disputes in good faith and as torch bearers of peace need
to be rule bound in their relations rather than resort to political or any other
considerations. If they observe human rights without any deviation in true spirit,
then they could supervise the practices of their citizens, and could assist them in
rendering their best assistance in the realization of fundamental freedoms.
Part three of the article, states that as members of the international community, both
states and we the people of the United Nations only have responsibilities to discharge
our duties, strictly adhering to the principles of the Charter. If we deviate, then UN as
a collective body cannot achieve the objects single handedly, and to blame it for the
miseries or sorrows is of no consequence.

Article 30 (No Abuse of Rights) :

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 therein.
The last provision is the most important one, compared to all the articles set forth in
the Declaration. from the picture it is clear that if any individual or state either
interprets the provisions for their own selfish interests, it means only destruction of
the fundamental freedoms of the individual. This article enshrines that every time, all
the actors need to act legally, and exercise their duties with great care and precision
without any recklessness towards life, liberty, equality, and fraternity of others.
If any time any one of us act with selfish motives, or discharge our duties in a
negligent manner, or discharge them without any adherence to respect for the rights
of others, it ultimately result in miseries. Further, the concepts of peace,
security, and one world, or single mankind, freedoms of life, liberty, and equality
remain as ideals alone. The deviation further results in bringing anarchical
tendencies, and other associated miseries to mankind not only to present generations,
but also for the future generations.
The last principle underlines once again, in theory and practices both the states and
individuals as partners and actors of international community need to comply with
the principles of law and justice with strict adherence. The strict practice of duties
alone will bloom the culture of human rights. Such practices alone wipe the miseries
of the contemporary world. This will result to achieve long lasting solutions to
establish peace and security.