Constitutional Law

Committing To Human Rights At Home and Overseas

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and progressives are calling on the next administration to renew the nation’s commitment to human rights at home and abroad.

Kevin Hsu, in a blog post for The Opportunity Agenda, noted that America could take a major step toward promoting and bolstering human rights by finally ensuring that all Americans have access to health insurance. “While some policymakers drag their feet on guaranteeing a right to health care, 46 million Americans have no health insurance coverage, and 25 million are underinsured, meaning that even though they pay for insurance, they are one catastrophic illness away from massive medical bills,” Hsu wrote.

The UDHR adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948, includes a preamble and 30 articles declaring human rights for all people. It was born out of worldwide revulsion over the atrocities of World War II. “Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, …,” states a portion of the Declaration’s preamble.

Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU Human Rights Program, in a press release, stated that the “passage of the UDHR brought worldwide awareness of the basic rights and protections all people should enjoy. Sadly, eight years of disastrous policy by the Bush administration have put the very rights embodied by the UDHR in jeopardy.”

Former President Jimmy Carter in a column for The Washington Post urged the shuttering of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and an end to the use of torture of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The detention of people secretly or indefinitely and without due process must cease, and their cases should be transferred to our courts, which have proved their competence in trying those accused of terrorism,” Carter wrote.

Earlier this fall, ACS released “Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration,” by Fordham Law School professor Catherine Powell. Powell’s blueprint urges the nation to reaffirm its “commitment to human rights at home ….” It is critical for the nation to do so, Powell writes, because “human rights are at the core of America’s founding values, and Americans (as well as others within our borders or in U.S. custody), no less than others around the world, are entitled to the full benefit of these basic guarantees.” Powell’s blueprint is available here.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on December 10, 2008 (boomark / email).