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Article: Human rights fifty years after the universal declaration: reconciling American political science and the study of human rights.(The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Fifty)
- Article from:
- PS: Political Science & Politics
- Article date:
- September 1, 1998
- Author:
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On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without negative vote. In 1945, the UN Charter, unlike the League of Nations Covenant, had required member states to cooperate on human rights matters. The Universal Declaration was the first attempt by governments to specify what this vague Charter obligation meant. The Declaration contained 30 principles that were further elaborated in two basic treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. These developments, along with the Nuremberg and Tokyo Criminal Tribunals and the ...