"10 DECEMBER: WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY"

“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 […] All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights […] everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person… all are equal before the law.”

With these fundamental words, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized that each human right – civil, cultural, economic, political and social one – belonged inherently to all people, coming from all over the world and with no regard to sex, race and religion. The Declaration is certainly the milestone of modern human rights law.

Many of the principles that underpin the modern human rights law can be traced back centuries, and even further. Religious texts and writings of ancient philosophers provide a fertile source - and I am referring to the so-called ‘natural law’ and all its interpretations through history of humankind.

From such a standpoint, fundamental rights and the protection of human dignity are - and always have been - our entitlement. Following this natural law perspective, the Declaration is more of a codification of existing principles than an exercise in creative lawmaking.

The most direct ancestor of the language in the Declaration is the famous Magna Carta imposed by the English barons upon the King of England in 1215. It sets out certain rights for “freemen” and it affirmed that even the monarch was not above the law. The Magna Carta launched an increasingly robust legal tradition that manifested itself in such texts such as the Habeas Corpus Acts and the 1688 Bill of Rights. In the seventeenth century, religious and political refugees brought this law with them to the United States where, as part of the War of Independence, the norms became entrenched and embedded in the Constitution.

Translated into French and exported by Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette, the language of human rights and the rule of law surfaced in revolutionary Paris. Over the next 150 years, the proclamations of the Americans and the French provided models for many others who associated statehood and independence with an entitlement of individuals to certain fundamental rights. By the early twentieth century, fundamental human rights were familiar components of many national constitutions. However, there was as yet no global benchmark nor, for that matter, a proper forum in which to proclaim one.

At the present day, it has been more than seven decades since the Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), during the 183rd session on December 10th, 1948. Human rights had already featured in the Charter, which dates from June 1945, but the founding document of the United Nations left some important matters to be resolved. Yet, the Declaration was never intended to be the last word on the topic. Rather, the formulation of human rights was viewed as a work in progress, and there was much unfinished business, including more treaties supposed to be negotiated in the following years.

The Declaration is not only a seminal document in the development of international human rights law, but also a living instrument which continues to be relevant to and applied in a broad range of contexts.

Today, the international human rights movement has many dimensions. Professionals and activists take on a variety of roles, as diplomats, NGO campaigners and ordinary citizens who participate in the development of the shared vision created by the Declaration.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Human rights begin in small places, close to home. An important contribution to this constantly evolving system is made by scholars and academics, who enrich our grasp of the content of international human rights. They examine the history of human rights, analysing the themes of the time and the unresolved debates. This exploration of the past helps in better understanding the present as well as in pointing the way to the future.”

Maria Sara Neri