Human rights are fundamental to all

The holiday season is filled with many time-honored traditions.

Though much is made of the commercialism that surrounds and at times seems to smother the holidays, for many Americans the holidays are a time of giving and charity. And Americans can be very generous. In 2007, individuals contributed $229 billion to charitable organizations. Many will give generously this year too, though their pockets may not be as deep because of the recession.

Concern for others was also at the heart of the origins of a milestone event commemorated earlier this month. On Dec. 10, the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Drafted under Eleanor Roosevelt’s stewardship in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the declaration launched the modern international human rights movement with its Article 1 declaration that “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” In the ensuing six decades, the declaration has been a beacon of inspiration for the implementation and protection of human rights around the globe.

Since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the international community, with significant input from the United States, has developed numerous human rights treaties, amplifying the content of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and ensuring such rights extend unequivocally to historically marginalized populations, including women, minorities, children, refugees, indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities. The lives of millions of individuals are better as a result of the fulfillment of their rights. Honoring the declaration’s principles fits with the holiday spirit of concern for one’s fellow human beings.

The spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and holiday giving differ in an important respect, however; human rights are about more than charity. Rights are inherent in each of us regardless of who we are, what we look like or what we believe. Having human rights means governments don’t get to decide what opinions we hold or religion we practice. It means governments cannot torture individuals or arbitrarily detain them. Rights are entitlements, and the very fact that you are human means you have rights. Whether one is from Darfur or Detroit, Nepal or New Orleans, each of us has the same rights. That is something to celebrate.

But we are far from realizing rights for all.

Much more work is needed, and one obvious starting point is the world’s children. No child should go hungry, be denied basic health care needs or be unable to attend school. Nor should any child have to endure trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced labor or other abuses. Yet in every country in the world, including the United States, children suffer all of these human rights violations. We can do better. The charitable spirit at the holiday season, even in these tough economic times, tells us we have the capacity to do so.

Next year the international community will reach another landmark: the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely supported human rights treaty in the world. More than 190 countries are a party to the treaty; only Somalia, which currently has no internationally recognized government, and the United States are not. The Convention on the Rights of the Child offers a template for improving the lives of children everywhere. Yet, its impending 20th anniversary also means an entire generation of children has missed out on its benefits, either because in the United States we have refused to ratify the treaty or because elsewhere governments have fallen short of fulfilling their treaty obligations.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child anniversary hopefully will bring children to the forefront in the new year. Meanwhile the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us that human rights are fundamental for everyone. We’d do well to recall that after confronting the horrors of the Holocaust and bloodshed of World War II, the world united in voice to affirm through the declaration that “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

This holiday season, when the economy’s woes have made life harder for so many, let us be emboldened by the holiday spirit and commit ourselves to fulfilling the mandate of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ensuring the rights of all individuals.

• Jonathan Todres is a law professor at Georgia State University.