Human rights declarations

Some basic human rights have been written down and agreed to by many states. The most famous text is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which the UN General Assembly approved on 10 December 1948. International Human Rights Day is now celebrated on 10 December every year. The statement of principles in the Declaration has had a great influence all over the world, although governments are not forced by law to obey them. However, many lawyers would argue that, because of the way the international world works, human rights have become legally binding and that governments now do have to obey some of the principles.

Human rights and freedoms

When the Declaration was created, most states agreed to it. However, some countries did not sign the Declaration. At the time, South Africa was dominated by white people who did not want equal rights for black people and so did not sign. Saudi Arabia also opposed the Declaration for religious reasons. One of the Articles (18) allows humans the freedom to change and practise the religion of their choice. Laws in Saudi Arabia mean that the practice of Christianity is forbidden and the right to change your religion from Islam to another is not recognised in Islamic ideology. The Government of the former Soviet Union and former communist countries, despite agreeing with much of it, also did not sign the Declaration, because they suspected that it was a Cold War text that threatened their authority.