On December 10, 2018, the United Nations and other international organizations celebrated Human Rights Day, marking the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration, which has served as a foundation for the UN’s efforts to abolish the death penalty, contains 30 articles stating universally applicable rights based on the “inherent dignity” and “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” Article 3 declares, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person,” and has provided the basis of UN treaties and resolutions against capital punishment, including the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, which, as of 2017, had been signed by 85 nations.
When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948, only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty. Today, 142 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. The Declaration was written in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, and called for an end to torture, cruel punishments, and discrimination. It affirmed the rights to fair trials, asylum from persecution, and presumption of innocence. The Universal Declaration, along with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, comprise what has come to be known as the International Bill of Rights. Articles 6 and 7 of the ICCPR provide human rights safeguards against the improper use of capital punishment. Article 6 limits the circumstances in which the death penalty can be applied and provides: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. … No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” Article 7 states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
On the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration, a UN statement said, “Thanks to the Declaration, and States’ commitments to its principles, the dignity of millions has been uplifted and the foundation for a more just world has been laid. While its promise is yet to be fully realized, the very fact that it has stood the test of time is testament to the enduring universality of its perennial values of equality, justice and human dignity.”
(Tom Gjelten, Boundlessly Idealistic, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights Is Still Resisted, NPR, December 10, 2018; The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70, United Nations, December 10, 2018.) Read The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. See International.
