United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Later this year on December 10 marks the 70th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While the document, passed by the U.N. General Assembly on that date in 1948, is considered to be a milestone in the history of human rights, many people believe that little progress has been made in the years since its passage.

The document sets out fundamental human rights has its 47 member nations vow to protect, yet some of the members regularly violate these tenets. Instead of getting better, the world situation seems to be getting worse. In 2017, nine members of the U.N. Human Rights Council were among a whopping 29 nations in the world that violated some portion of the Declaration of Human Rights. The countries found in violation were Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates. What’s even more disturbing is that since the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) began issuing its annual report eight years earlier, 2017 marked the first time that the governments of more than 20 countries worldwide were involved human rights abuses.

Who are the Worst Offenders?

China and Saudi Arabia are on the list virtually every year, having been cited by the Human Rights Council for violations in six out of the last eight years. Although Chinese President Xi Jinping vehemently denies that his government is involved in human rights abuses, watchdogs conclude that human rights in China are currently at their lowest point since the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989.

In addition to the aforementioned U.N. member nations, other countries involved in human rights abuses included Algeria, Bahrain, Burma, Eritrea, Honduras, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

What Kinds of Violations are Occurring?

Many of the abuses involved individuals who had assisted the U.N. with its human rights work. Those actions included abductions, detentions and disappearances of individuals working with the U.N., along with other actions such as raids on home or offices, travel bans, frozen assets, arbitrary detention and torture, and forced psychiatric treatment.

Overall, rights for women and children, the disabled, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people are freedom of speech and religion regularly trampled on in countries that have been identified as violating the declaration. In some countries, rape and mistreated of women are condoned for religious and other reasons.

It’s Probably Going to Get Worse

The United States has a notorious reputaton for condoning human rights abuses perpetrated by its global friends, yet historically the USA has condemned human rights buses committed by other countries with which it doesn’t have a close relationship. The “America First” attitude promoted by the Trump administration along with President Trump’s own statements advocating killing drug dealers in the United States, the idea for which he got from Xi Jinping point not only to an attitude about not caring about human rights in other countries but to a possible abuse of rights in the United States if current domestic attitude continue.