Human Rights – Archive Article
December 10, 2008

10.12.2008: The piece below was broadcast ten years ago. To find out more about the UN’s Human Rights Policy in 2008 follow the link.

RADIO 2GB NEWS COMMENTARY BROADCAST ON FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 1998 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON DECEMBER 6 1998 ON “SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.

December 10 next week (1998) will be the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is the basic document of the global human rights revolution.

The Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 with no votes against it. But there were some abstentions. The Soviet Union and its east European allies abstained because the Declaration contained the right to own property, South Africa opposed the principle that blacks were equal to whites, and Saudi Arabia opposed the principle that women were equal to men.

An example of the global human rights revolution is simply the changes in these countries. Communism has collapsed in eastern Europe, so that people can now own property, and apartheid has gone in South Africa, with South Africa now having an African president. Only the sexism in some Islamic thinking is still current.

The global human rights revolution may be seen, first, in the way that human rights are part of the political vocabulary. Political claims are expressed in terms of “human rights”. Even if people are unfamiliar with the details of the UN’s declarations and treaties, there is widespread interest in human rights, and people are now more likely than ever before to oppose abuses of governmental power which violate human rights. People are still being treated badly – but they know their rights are being violated. People are not dying in ignorance.

Second, the UN has produced a diverse range of declarations and treaties flowing from the Declaration.

Third, the UN is also creating a network of techniques to assist governments protect human rights. For example, UN officials have helped the new governments in Eastern Europe devise electoral reforms.

Fourth, the UN’s work is being copied at the regional level. The best example is the Council of Europe (which contains all of Western Europe’s countries). The Council’s work is particularly good on civil and political rights and the Council’s human rights machinery has the power to coerce member-governments to change their policies or risk expulsion from the Council.

Finally, the UN has provided an opportunity for non-governmental organizations to lobby governments to improve their human rights records. Some governments do make private requests to governments to improve their human rights policies. But they are inhibited by the limitations of diplomacy on what they may say in public. Non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists, are not so restrained.

Incidentally, the only surviving Australian who was in at the beginning of the global human rights revolution was a former Superintendent of Wesley Mission, Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker. Sir Alan was selected by the Australian prime minister of the day to be an adviser to the Australian delegation in the UN’s pioneering work on human rights. He has lived to see how much of a contribution the Declaration has made to improving the lives of ordinary people around the world.