A Global Bill of Rights

It is easy to assert that people have, or ought to have rights, especially when we think ours are being violated. It is much harder to agree on what rights all people (regardless of place, status, or demographic trait) should have and which, therefore, we and our governments should respect and protect.

The following list of rights are drawn in close paraphrase from almost all of the clauses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration was adopted in 1948 by the UN General Assembly with no dissenting votes (albeit with abstentions by the Soviet bloc countries, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa). The rights that the UN membership with near unanimity recognized illustrate two of the important controversies about rights. One is the matter of cultural relativism. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) in its preamble implicitly rejects the positivist concept that rights are culture-based by recognizing the existence of "inalienable rights of all members of the human family." The second controversy is whether rights involve only prohibitions on governments, and perhaps people, against specific abuses (such as abridging free speech), or whether rights extend to quality of life criteria (such as health and economic condition). You will note that beginning with number 20, the rights enumerated by the Universal Declaration include several quality of life standards.

One thing that you can do with this list, in your class or with your friends, is to constitute yourselves as the World Constitutional Convention, debate the various clauses of the UNDHR, and decide whether to ratify or reject each one of them. You might also decide to open them up for amendment. Finally, take note of clause 27 and ponder whether it provides too much of an escape clause that potentially allows governments to violate rights and to assert that doing so is necessitated by "the just requirements of morality, public order, and the general welfare in a democratic society."

1		Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
2		No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
3		No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
4		All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
5		No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
6		Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial [and to have] all the guarantees necessary for his [or her] defense.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
7		Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
8		Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
9		Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
10		No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality or denied the right to change his nationality.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
11		[Adults] without any limitation due to race, nationality, or religion have the right to marry [or not to marry] and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights [both] during marriage and at its dissolution.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
12		Everyone has the right to own property alone. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
13		Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; to change religion or belief, and in public or private to manifest [that] religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
14		Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
15		Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
16		No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
17		Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his [or her] country directly or through freely chosen representatives.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
18		Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his [or her] country.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
19		The will of the people shall be the 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 shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
20		Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
21		Everyone without any discrimination has the right to equal pay for equal work.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
22		Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
23		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.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
24		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.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
25		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 equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
26		Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject
27		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 the general welfare in a democratic society.
			A)	Ratify
			B)	Reject