International Human Rights and the International Human Rights System A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions [D]isregard 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.24 These events also led to the establishment of the United Nations (UN), a far more effective international organization than its predecessor, the League of Nations. The great difference is evident in their constitutional documents. The Covenant of the League of Nations had nothing to say about human rights. The UN Charter adopts human rights as one of the three pillars of the organization, alongside peace and development. The promotion of human rights is one of the core purposes of the UN.25 That core purpose has been pursued through the negotiation and adoption of a now great volume of international law for the promotion and protection of human rights, beginning with the UDHR. 3. THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS When the UN Charter was adopted and proclaimed human rights as one of the core purposes of the UN, human rights were still undefined. The first human rights task of the new organization, therefore, was to arrive at an acceptable definition; not merely in broad terms but in the specifics of what the content of “human rights” was. That was achieved in a remarkably short period. The Commission on Human Rights was established in December 1946 and it immediately embarked on the drafting project. It assigned eight of its Member States, drawn from all regions and major cultural systems, together with a member of the UN Secretariat, to the drafting committee: • the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, the then Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America • three other members of the Commission on Human Rights: Australia, Chile, and Lebanon.26 The Commission provided a draft declaration for the consideration of the General Assembly (GA) in less than two years. The process was treated with the utmost seriousness and the text was seen as a highly significant statement. The draft was debated at length in the GA’s Third Committee and in the GA plenary, with almost 1,300 votes on clauses and amendments.27 The GA adopted the UDHR on 10 December 1948 without a single State dissenting, although eight States abstained in the final vote.28 Now, therefore the General Assembly proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance ...29 The UDHR was the first international recognition that human rights are inherent and universal. 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.30 It recognizes that human rights are the entitlements of everyone, everywhere. 24 UDHR; PP. 2. 25 UN Charter; article 1.3. 26 See: www.un.org/Depts/dhl/udhr/members_eroos.shtml. 27 See: www.udhr.org/history/yearbook.htm. 28 The eight abstaining States were: Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic; Czechoslovakia; Poland; Saudi Arabia; Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; Union of South Africa; Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics; and Yugoslavia. See: www.udhr.org/history/ yearbook.htm. 29 UDHR; PP. 8. 30 UDHR; article 1. Chapter 3: What is international human rights law? | 11