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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Seventy: Progress and Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2018

Ş. İlgü Özler
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Abstract

Now is a good time to take stock of the global progress made toward achieving the ideals enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was passed by the UN General Assembly seventy years ago. Though the UDHR has played a vital role in advancing human rights globally, threats to human rights are ever present. Two issues in particular stand out as barriers to further progress. The first is state sovereignty, which presents a fundamental challenge to any effort to establish universal norms. Without strong global institutional mechanisms to ensure implementation, UDHR's impact remains limited. The second major concern is the “siloing” of human rights efforts, whereby civil and political rights have been given primacy over social and economic rights. Emphasis on some principles to the exclusion of others undermines the comprehensive advancement of human rights. The current state of affairs is a product of the collective failure to address human rights holistically and to implement real monitoring and accountability measures for states, which are directly charged with upholding them within their borders.

Keywords

UDHRUnited Nationshuman rightseconomic rightssocial rightscultural rightscivil rightspolitical rights
Type
Essay
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , Winter 2018 , pp. 395 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2018 

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References

NOTES

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