Little to celebrate

The world marked Human Rights Day on December 10. Looking around, in the world, gives one little reason to celebrate.

The date commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Two years later, in 1950, the assembly passed Resolution 423 (V), inviting all states and interested organisations to observe December 10 of each year as Human Rights Day.

Judging by the extent of human rights violations all over the world, there is really not much for the UN system to show for or to celebrate on this day.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is supposed to be the lodestar on human rights and behaviour for the countries of the world.

Two basic covenants were adopted by the UN General Assembly after the declaration to codify its principles: the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on December 16, 1966, which entered into force on January 3, 1966; the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the same date, which entered into force on March 23, 1966.

Based on these two principal human rights treaties, later on other, more specialised, human rights conventions were articulated.

Yet, despite the fact that 68 years have passed since the birth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 50 since the entry into force of the two other basic human rights instruments, the rights of many people continue to be gravely and systematically violated in many countries, including some of the most advanced nations.

Only a handful of nations, the Scandinavian countries, can be truly proud of their human rights record. Most of the rest have a mixed record, at best.

Most troubling is that, despite the rich national and international human rights legislative base, respect for human rights has yet to become part of the culture and practice of many countries. 

Regrettably, one can say that the UN human rights instruments failed to be efficient in most cases.

Something is therefore missing from the international human rights process even when there is an abundance of international and national human rights norms.

One explanation could be the fact that human rights do exist on paper, but there is little or no mechanism to enforce compliance with laws concerning them.

Most often, there is more talk than action at UN level. Which means that the UN human rights system is due for a serious overhaul.

Its procedures, methods of work and mechanisms of enforcement need to be revisited and the UN should be empowered to exercise the authority with which it was conceived in the first place.