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11 December 2008
Amb. Glendon Discusses Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Ask America webchat transcript, December 11
Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, U.S. envoy to the Holy See, answered questions in a December 10 Ask America webchat on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and current human rights issues.
Following is the transcript:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Ask America Webchat Transcript
60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Guest: Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon
Date: December 10, 2008
Time: 8 a.m. EST (13:00 GMT)
Webchat Moderator [Kristin]: On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR sets forth the inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms of each and every person on the face of the earth.
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Join us as we discuss not only the drafting of the UDHR, but also current human rights topics with Ambassador Glendon.
You can submit your questions before and during the program.
Welcome everyone! Will we start at the top of the hour. Please continue to submit your questions for Ambassador Glendon.
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): The Ambassador has joined us, so we are going to go ahead and get started. Here is a message from the Ambassador:
Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon: Hello everyone, and Happy Human Rights Day!
Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon: Many thanks for your interest in the history of the framing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As this is the first time I’ve done a "web chat", I hope you’ll bear with me. I’m always curious to know why a person chooses to study a particular subject, so to get the conversation started—I thought I might say why I decided to look into the history of the UDHR. It all started with a book that wasn’t in the library in the 1990s. I wanted to know whether there was anything in the document’s background that shed light on current disputes, such as whether the UDHR was a "western" document and whether the social and economic rights had been included as a concession to the Soviet bloc. I thought I’d just go to the library and look it up. To my surprise, there was almost nothing written on the subject at that time. So I began to look into the UN records, as well as letters and diaries of the protagonists myself. As so often happens with research, I found much more than I was looking was looking for—especially the stories of a great generation of diplomats and new insight into the part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s life that she herself considered to have been her most important and productive years. All of which I would be happy to discuss with you!
Webchat Moderator [Kristin]: Our first question is from sophie.
Question [sophie]: I've heard that the UDHR is a western organization. Is this true? Who founded it?
Answer [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: Thanks Sophie. That’s one of the things I wanted to find out when I researched the history of the UDHR. Years after the UDHR was approved in 1948, some people began to say it was "western" and that it wasn’t relevant to all parts of the world. What I discovered was that it was the product of an impressively multicultural collaboration –of the 58 countries in the UN at the time, six were Asian, and nine had predominantly Muslim populations. Among the important "founding fathers and mothers" were Mrs. Hansa Mehta of India, Peng Chun Chang of China, and Charles Malik of Lebanon. But one large number of voices that were missing were those from sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, as the former colonies became independent, most of them adopted bills of rights that were modeled on the UDHR. That’s some evidence that the principles in the UDHR have a good claim to being universal. Over the years, further evidence of their wide resonance is that almost every country has signed documents that [incorporate and reaffirm the rights and responsibilities contained in the UDHR].
Comment [IRC Antananarivo: Volana: Even if we try our best to make sure that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be respected, some where out there in the world a lot of people suffers. Everywhere, we should come together to fights and punish those who don’t respect Human Rights; we shouldn’t be afraid to tell anyone if our rights are not respected, we need to watch over each other and work together. Above all, let people know more about their rights and its importance.
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Thanks for your thoughts Volana!
Q [franck-Madagascar Tribune]: Hi Ambassador, as being a journalist from developing country like Madagascar, we still have poor condition as far as prisoner's rights are concerned. Do you think, country like us could improve this condition as part of respecting the Human Rights if we still have budget problem as well as management problem? Many thanks for being with us today
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: Well, Franck, one of the problems discussed by the framers of the UDHR was what to do about rights that involve public expenditures. Poor countries at the time like Egypt and India were especially concerned. That’s why the document was issued as a standard toward which every country was expected to strive, rather than as a document that would be binding under international law. Later, many of these rights were made binding by Covenant, but the nations have a certain amount of flexibility in deciding exactly how to implement them. The important thing is to keep striving and to understand that it doesn’t cost money to respect everyone’s basic human dignity.
Comment [hamletmix]: My name is Mirija. In my opinion we should focus our intention to the hunger in the world because its discussion takes an important place at the United Nations when we deal with justice in the world.
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Thanks Mirija, for sharing you thoughts with us.
Q [Sammy]: Ambassador Glendon...what do you see as the worst human rights abuses in the world?
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: It would be hard to say that one serious abuse of human dignity is worse than another, Sammy, and I would not want to go down that road of comparing one person’s suffering to another person’s. The men and women who drafted the UDHR had lived through the horrors of two world wars and they had seen just about every kind of indignity that human beings can inflict on one another. Their message about your question was that all these really fundamental rights are "indivisible, inalienable, and interdependent." They didn’t try to list everything that could be considered a right—just those that are essential to human dignity. They are all important and they all need to be respected.
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: Berthine: If compared to what happens in developed world many people in developing countries do not really feel the implementation of the UDHR?
Webchat Moderator (Mark): While we are waiting for the Ambassador's answer, could everyone please introduce themselves, what country they are from, and their organization please?
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: Dear Berthine, you are so right that there are too many places in the world where human rights remain a distant dream. We can take some encouragement, though, from the fact that, before 1948, most people in developed countries thought that what happened in other parts of the world was nobody’s concern except that of the governments in question. Today, it is generally accepted that the violation of human rights is everyone’s concern—and we have seen the creation and implementation of vast programs of humanitarian aid. There’s still a long way to go, but at least we’ve made some progress.
Comment [Yashmine]: good morning!
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Hi and welcome!
To see a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights please go to: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html It's exciting to see you all! Thanks for being with us today.
Comment [Yashmine]: Hi, I'm Yashmine Landi, and I'm from Brasil
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Hi Yashmine! I'm typing to you all from Washington, DC.
To learn more about Human Rights Day and the 60th Anniversary of the UDHR please visit: http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/udhr60/
Q [Linda Malukutu]: Are there indicators of progress since the declaration?
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: Let me list some of the main indicators, Linda. Since the UDHR was approved, it has become the principal rallying point for the great human rights movements that resulted in the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, and the fall of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe. Today, it remains the main reference point for cross-national discussions of human rights—as Mrs. Roosevelt once put it: "It is a bridge on which we can stand and talk." And from the time it was adopted up to the present it has helped to train the spotlight of publicity on abuses that previously were hidden or ignored.
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: SOS femmes battues à Madagascar: I recognize that a lot of progress have been made for promoting and implementing UDHR during those sixty years, but still some parts of the world and many people are unaware of it existence mainly in a remote place where the level of instruction is low, so is there a plan to let them know about their rights?
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Thank you for your patience. The Ambassador will answer as many questions as she can. All of the questions you are submitting are being collected in a queue.
Please feel free, as always, to share your location with the audience. We love to hear where you are from!
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: One of the great things about the UDHR is that the whole text can fit on a single page. And one of the most important developments that has helped to make people aware of their rights is the invention of the personal computer. It’s pretty clear that the internet is having a huge effect in this area. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the "one laptop per child" initiative, but this wonderful idea (look it up on the internet) is making free computers available to millions of children in developing countries. So I think we can be hopeful that the message of the UDHR will soon be available to everybody everywhere.
Comment [Joyeuse 2]: hi! I'm Joyeuse Raissa and I'm from Rwanda
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Welcome Joyeuse Raissa!
Comment [IRC Antananarivo 2]:Herilova :According to the articles 13 AND 14, is it ok for anyone being persecuted for political reasons to take refuge in a foreign country without getting permission from the country where they come from.
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Thanks for sharing with us Herilova.
Q [Yossarin]: Is the UDHR still relevant today? Is it updated to reflect changing times?
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: Great question, Yossarin! I’d say the UDHR was so far ahead of its time (imagine proclaiming equal rights without regard to race or gender in 1948!) that it is still very relevant—and still waiting to be fulfilled in many respects. You could say it is something like the constitution of the international human rights movement, a body of principles that have to be constantly developed and applied to new situations. And of course there have been several important human rights instruments since then, such as the two 1966 Covenants that recognized the right to self-determination of peoples, a right not found in the UDHR.
Q [IRC Antananarivo 2]: Miora: What obstacles were encountered when the UDHR was inserted within the laws in force governing a given country? What are the possible solutions?
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: Miora’s question is hard to answer because the fact is that UDHR is not a binding instrument under international law. Its principles become binding, however, when a country ratifies a human rights covenant—or decides to enforce human rights principles within its own legal system. The process can be complicated: Some countries will ratify covenants only with reservations concerning certain rights, for example. And some of the world’s most notorious human rights violators have ratified covenants without any intention to enforce them. In the end, much depends on whether a particular nation takes seriously one of the most important values in the UDHR: the right of everyone to the rule of law and to a social and political order where rights are respected.
Comment [hamletmix]: To answer the question of Mark I'm Mirija, and I come from Madagascar
Comment [vokebabe200]: Good afternoon her excellency
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Hi and welcome.
Comment [Joyeuse 5]: I'm Gloriose I' m from Rwanda
Comment [vokebabe200]: I am from Nigeria, but currently in Romania
Q [Joyeuse 2]: Are really human rights universal?
Q [vokebabe200]: thank you, madam, please I would like to know if the universal human right declaration applies to all countries in the world?
Comment [Joyeuse 3]: yes! But I think their implementation are cultural relatives
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Thanks for your thoughts Joyeuse.
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: The question of how you can have universal rights in our increasingly diverse and conflict-ridden world is one that is being debated in many quarters today. It’s interesting that the UN Charter speaks of "faith" in human dignity and "faith" in human rights. That faith can be sorely tested if one thinks of the horrors and atrocities that have occurred throughout history. But the framers of the UDHR believed, on the basis of extensive cross-cultural, studies that there are a few things so bad that no reasonable person can publicly endorse them; and a few things so good that no reasonable person can publicly oppose them. They also believed that we are not just playthings of history but that we have the power and the responsibility to affect the course of human events by reason and choice. As I said to Sophie, it’s some evidence of the universality of the UDHR that almost every country has signed documents that incorporate and reaffirm the rights and responsibilities it contains.
Q [Joyeuse 2]: please, I'm interesting in what are the greatest challenges to human rights today?
A [Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon]: I think they come from two main directions: the claim that no rights are universal (often made by rights violators) and the effort of special interest groups to turn their agendas into rights. There’s a lot more to be said about this, but I’ll conclude by wishing you all a Happy Human Rights Day 2008 and thanking you for joining in this discussion!
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Thanks so much for joining us! And thank you for your time Ambassador Glendon.
We know that several of your questions didn't get answered due to time constrictions. Please join us tomorrow for our CONX Global Forum. It is an open chat for all to share their thoughts on human rights and challenges to human rights promotion.
Please also go to our Facebook page and let us know what you thought about the program today: http://co-nx.state.gov/
The webchat is now closed. Guests are chosen for their expertise. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.
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