By the time most American children reach elementary school they have learned to say, “I know my rights.” When the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791, however, the notion that a citizen could be cloaked with specific rights - such as the right to vote, to freedom of conscience or to the sanctity of one’s home - was a revolutionary concept that marked a dramatic departure from existing ideas about the relationship between government and the governed. In this new order, the power of government would be constrained by individual rights that the government would now be obligated to protect. This idea of freedom has proven so compelling that it has steadily spread around the world.
World War II provided a dramatic impetus to this movement. Stunned by the carnage and, in particular, the extermination of millions of Jews, Gypsies, and others, an international team that included Eleanor Roosevelt drafted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was designed to extend the umbrella of human rights to vulnerable populations around the world. On Dec. 10, 1948, it was adopted by the United Nations, and for the past 60 years it has inspired many societies to embrace the fundamental freedoms it promotes.
Today, concerns about the rights of ethnic, racial, and religious minorities - as well as women, homosexuals, and many others - are all advanced in the name of human rights. Many nations have hardwired into their system of laws protections enshrined in the Declaration. And, the Declaration has inspired people the world over to advocate for an expansion of individual rights.
Yet, there are reasons to doubt that this wave will continue to spread. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have witnessed genocidal murder in Cambodia, Bosnia, Liberia, Rwanda, and Darfur. In each of these cases, the international community did too little too late to bring an end to these tragedies. This has raised doubt as to our capacity and commitment to protect human rights.
Many nations and organizations also use allegations of abuse to promote goals that actually undermine human rights. The UN Human Rights Council, for example - a body that includes some of the world’s most repressive regimes, including Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan - has dedicated itself to the vilification of Israel. In the last two years, it has passed 22 resolutions condemning Israel, four criticizing Burma, and one directed at North Korea. In the same period, it has not passed a single resolution calling attention to abuses in Zimbabwe, Iran, Tibet, the Congo, or Saudi Arabia, or to concerns in any of the other 184 UN member states. This reflects a growing corruption of elements of the human rights movement that are willing to subordinate the interests of vulnerable populations to advance crass political purposes.
Finally, over the past two decades, a well-organized challenge to the very idea of human rights has emerged. Under the umbrella of the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, 57 Muslim majority nations are promoting a measure that would amend the Declaration so that speech that some construe as blasphemous would no longer be protected. The claim is that such utterances induce anti-religious violence and hatred against religious communities, particularly against Muslims. Each year since 1999, this nonbinding resolution has been approved by the UN Human Rights Council.
While this initiative may appear laudable, its effect is Orwellian. To stop expressions that some deem offensive, it would eviscerate the very idea of human rights by removing protections for the most basic of rights: freedom of speech, conscience, religion, and association. It also reflects an emerging clash of cultures between those who believe that the protection of individual rights is elemental to a free society and those who see in such rights a threat to religious beliefs that they hold sacred.
In the years to come, the human rights movement will need to find a way to negotiate this challenge. It will also need to fight to safeguard the integrity of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document to which all lovers of freedom owe a profound debt of gratitude.
Ken Levine is president and Robert Leikind is executive director of the Greater Boston Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.
