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.

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