Organize the South

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Below is a paper I wrote on human rights as a strategy. In it I correct the idea that the UDHR, and human rights in general, came about because of guilt following the Holocaust. This is simply false. Human rights was developed by people of color around the world as a strategy for ending colonialism and racial discrimination. It is an organizing strategy for economic development not a legal strategy. Happy December 10th.

HUMAN RIGHTS AS A DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

On page seven of the introduction of the joint strategic plan for the United States Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) it reads, “We must…foster development to combat poverty and to lay foundations for economic prosperity, human rights, and democracy.” (State/USAID, 2007) While it is convenient for rich countries to see human rights as secondary to development, the view is historically inaccurate. Moreover, the idea that development, either traditional or sustainable, can help or hinder human rights misses the point. Human rights, as pushed by the lesser developed countries of the Global South after World War II, is a development strategy.

The modern concept of human rights is articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The popular myth of the creation of the UDHR is that a guilt-ridden world attempted to prevent future holocausts. For example, “Because of the genocidal horrors that occurred during World War II against Jews, Gypsies, and other groups in Europe, the world community founded the United Nations and immediately started working on a document that would be called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).” (Snarr & Snarr, 2008) As is often the case with myth, reality is quite different. The United Nations was already being established by the time Auschwitz was liberated and before the full extent of the holocaust was known. What’s more, human rights was already at the center of the idea of the UN. (Waltz, 2002) Human rights do not exist because of guilt, they exist because of an international campaign led by countries and peoples of the Global South.

As soon as it was clear the Allies were going to win the war plans were being made to create the United Nations. Two conferences held in 1944 outside Washington, D.C. at Dumbarton Oaks led to the creation of a specific proposal. These conferences were attended by representatives from the U.S., Great Britain, the USSR, and China, although only the U.S. and Great Britain were at both events. The Dumbarton Oaks proposal released in 1945 mentioned human rights only once in the text. Even this was a compromise granted to China, the only country at the meetings fully committed to having the phrase in the document. (Waltz, 2002)

Fortunately, the Dumbarton Oaks proposal was not the final proposal. Countries around the world immediately responded, many with outrage. Twenty nations gathered at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City for the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War & Peace as a direct counter to the Dumbarton Oaks proposal. The delegates stated that the Dumbarton Oaks plan needed to be improved and endorsed a list of fundamental principles they desired to have applied to the future peace. (Peace, 1945) The reaction within the U.S. was about the same. All manner of NGOs issued reports demanding that human rights be at the core of the new international organization, what became the United Nations. The American Bar Association, the American Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Farm Bureau Federation, the NAACP, and others confronted State Department officials on human rights. In one month U.S. State Department personnel participated in more than 100 meetings, conferences and seminars with organizations across the country. In the end, the Dumbarton Oaks proposal was amended. (Korey, 2001)

In 1945 at the UN Conference on International Organization, human rights was given a central place in the charter. In addition, the permanent Commission on Human Rights was created. The Commission’s creation was largely due to the efforts of 42 US organizations and countless individuals who attended the conference. (Waltz, 2002) Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., an official U.S. representative at both the Dumbarton Oaks meetings and the UN Conference, said, “The provisions themselves owe much of their strength to the force of public opinion which was brought to bear in their support both before and during the San Francisco Conference.” (Edward R. Stettinius, 1946)

The rights defined in the UDHR can be divided into five areas: civil, political, economic, social, and cultural. Civil, political, and economic rights guarantee individual rights of equal treatment under law, participation in the political process, as well as protections at work and for property. Social and cultural rights can be viewed as collective rights of a people as well as for individuals. It was the intention of those fighting for human rights that all the rights be taken together. Human rights were proposed and are considered universal, inalienable, and indivisible. Human rights belong to all, they cannot be taken away, and the rights cannot be divided. Applying all five areas of rights at the same time to all was seen as necessary to counter racial discrimination and colonialism. (Waltz, 2002)

The history since the creation of the UDHR of African, Asian, and Latin American decolonization shows that the original idea of human rights as a development strategy can work. It is incumbent upon us that we not replace that lesson with myth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Korey, W. (2001). NGOs and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights : a curious grapevine (1st Palgrave ed.). New York: Palgrave.

Peace, I.-A. C. o. W. a. (1945). Act of Chapultepec: Declarations on Reciprocal Assistance and American Solidarity Retrieved October 18, 2008, from http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450303a.html

Snarr, M. T., & Snarr, N. (2008). Introducing global issues (4th ed.). Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

State/USAID, U. S. D. o. (2007). Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2007 - 2012. from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/82819.pdf.

Stettinius, Edward R. (1946). Human Rights in the United Nations Charter. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 243(Essential Human Rights), 1-3.

Waltz, S. (2002). Reclaiming and Rebuilding the History of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Third World Quarterly, 23(3), 437-448.