75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human rights

Assoc. Prof,. Dr. NGUYEN THANH TUAN

1. Context and content of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was not born by chance but reflects the demands of the era, in a special and unique political situation - after humanity had just experienced a catastrophic war caused by fascism, when countries, peoples, regardless of ideology, and political regimes met in a common understanding of what all members of humanity must collectively protect - that is human right(1).

In the United Nations (UN) Charter, which includes 19 chapters and 111 articles, human rights are mentioned 7 times. However, the Charter does not define human rights and does not identify a specific mechanism to ensure the human rights in member states. According to the recommendations of the UN, the Human Rights Committee was established in 1946 (since 2006, it has been reformed into the Human Rights Council). The Committee authorized a group of members, later known as the Committee, to draft the Declaration. On December 10, 1948, in Paris, the UN General Assembly passed the famous Declaration by Resolution 217A (III).

General overview: In addition to the Preamble, the content of the Declaration includes 30 articles. In particular, Articles 1 to 21 regulate civil and political rights, including: Freedom and equality in dignity and rights; the right not to be arrested or detained without cause; freedom of thought, belief, and religion, and so on.

From Article 22 to Article 29, regulations on economic, social, and cultural rights, such as the right to enjoy social security; the right to work, freedom to choose a career, equal pay, right to rest, play, and entertainment; the right to an adequate standard of living; and so on.

These regulations are identified as general principles and standards on human rights for all peoples and countries in the human community. Article 30 provides that no provision of this Declaration may be interpreted to imply any right to any State, group, or person aimed at destroying the rights and freedoms outlined in this Declaration.

The relative difference between the content of two groups of civil and political rights, and that of economic, social, and cultural rights.

Currently, there is no official definition or explanation in an international document on the concept of political rights. However, political rights can be understood simply as the rights of individuals to participate directly and indirectly in the affairs of the state and society, including state establishment and management.

Civil rights are understood as personal rights, closely tied to each person’s identity, can only be used independently by individuals, and cannot be transferred to others (right to life, freedom of movement, residence, etc.). Meanwhile, to exercise political rights, individuals must participate with others, such as the right to peaceful assembly, the right to vote, etc. Compared to the exercise of civil rights, the level of exercise of political rights always comes with certain limitations, such as: for reasons of national security, public order, rights, and freedoms of others, and so on.

With this understanding, the concept of political rights mainly refers to the right to vote, the right to run for office, etc. But due to the development of democracy, the concept of political rights is increasingly expanding, including participating with the state in deciding on important political issues of the country, such as decisions on political institutions, form of government, constitutional amendments, etc. Economic, social, and cultural rights are understood as individual rights and community rights. If civil and political rights are realized - perhaps instantaneously, then economic, social, and cultural rights are realized step by step, corresponding to the country’s available resources.

2. The meaning and historical limitations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Firstly, inheriting the common foundation of international principles and standards on human rights that have been achieved in the cultural heritage of humanity

Based on the orientations of the UN Charter, the Declaration inherits many human rights principles and standards in the legal documents of the League of Nations (1919-1939), The International Labor Organization (ILO), and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent that were established in the early twentieth century, etc. The Declaration also inherited a number of world-famous national legal documents, such as England’s Magna Carta (1215), America’s Declaration of Independence (1776), and the US Constitution (1787), French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and so on.

The basic human rights standards in the Declaration come from legal documents of a number of international organizations established in the early twentieth century and progressive norms of some famous legal documents of England, America, and France. Therefore, the Declaration has great historical significance and is consistent with the development trend of the modern world. Up to now, countries around the world, regardless of political regime, ideology, level of development, and cultural identity, consider the implementation of this document a common obligation. Therefore, December 10, 1948 - the day the Declaration was adopted, is honored as International Human Rights Day, and is commemorated by countries around the world every year.

Secondly, contributing to establishing basic human rights standards and principles worldwide

The main contributions of the Declaration are: Proclaiming common standards of human rights for all peoples and nations to strive to achieve; At the same time, it states basic principles, such as: not being discriminated against, being recognized as equal before the law; being protected from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; freedom from being enslaved or exploited; not to be arbitrarily arrested or detained; humane treatment and respect for the dignity of persons deprived of their liberty; to receive a fair trial; etc. The Declaration consistently demonstrates the common philosophy and principle that everyone is equal in the field of human rights; supplements and develops the concept of human rights to a new level, beyond the previous domestic European-American concept; It identifies the implementation of human rights as a common goal of all humanity; and advocate for the establishment of an appropriate social and international order to promote the implementation of human rights; denying the absolute nature of human rights, by closely linking rights and obligations; and establishes the responsibility of states, groups or individuals to fulfill the obligations of human rights or freedoms set out in the Declaration.

Thirdly, crystallizing human rights and cultural values in the world

With those contributions, up to now, the Declaration has passed the harsh test of time, because the Declaration crystallizes spiritual and cultural values, especially respect for human dignity in the spirit of humanity and tolerance, which are inherent values of nations and peoples without distinguishing between ideologies, political regimes, and cultural identities.

The Declaration is considered to have opened a new era in international commitment to human freedom. The Declaration is a political declaration, but this document addresses many aspects, from the philosophical to the political and legal foundations of human rights. Although it is not a spiritually binding document, the moral, humane, political, and legal value of this document is higher than any other human rights documents.

This document also takes into account the possibility that individuals and organizations may take advantage of human rights to violate the rights of others and the interests of society. Therefore, Article 29 of the Declaration stipulates: “Each person has a duty to the community, etc. Each person, while enjoying individual rights and freedoms, is only subject to limitations prescribed by law for the sole purpose of securing recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others, and the just demands of morality, public order, etc., in a democratic society”(2).

The Declaration and international conventions on human rights are considered the basic source in the building and perfecting of laws to protect the civil rights and human rights of countries. Based on the Declaration and conventions, UN human rights agencies were established, forming an international mechanism to protect human rights. Human rights, which were once a legal institution in some countries, have now become a common concern of the international community; Moreover, they have become international law on human rights. The current human rights protection mechanism is organized and operates on most continents and in many countries around the world.

Born 75 years ago, the Declaration is a historical document but inevitably carries historical limitations due to the compromises of differing opinions and positions during the lengthily and intense process. These historical limitations include(3):

Firstly, the Declaration emphasizes the universality and common standards of human rights but ignores the specificity and differences in the application of common standards in different countries. Universality and specificity are two inseparable aspects in the category of human rights. In fact, this most serious shortcoming of the Declaration has led to the neglect of the specificity and the concrete differences of human rights in practice.

The realization of human rights always occurs under specific historical conditions and situations in different countries and peoples with distinct levels of development. The rights of each individual are not only closely linked to the country’s socio-political system and the level of economic and cultural development of that society, but also associated with the work, habits, and lives of people belonging to that specific system. Rights can never surpass or be higher than the economic regime and level of cultural and social development that each country has achieved. However, the implementation of human rights will be different in each historical period and in different countries and even different in countries with the same social system, but with different levels of economic and cultural development.

These limitations have been overcome, for example, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966); in the First World Human Rights Conference in Tehran (Iran) in 1968, and especially in the Second World Human Rights Conference in Vienna (Austria) in 1993. The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the Second World Human Rights Conference in Vienna (Austria) in 1993 emphasized: “All peoples have the right to national self-determination. With that right, people freely determine their political institutions and freely pursue the path of economic, social, and cultural development”(4). Regarding the relationship between the universality and specificity of human rights, this document clearly states: “All human rights are universal” but “must always remember the significance of national, regional, and different historical and cultural specificities, etc”.(5).

Secondly, the Declaration placed too much emphasis on considering human rights as individual rights, ignoring the collective rights of large social groups, peoples, and nations. Those who voted to adopt the 1948 Declaration recognized that individual values and interests are the core of human rights, so the main contents of human rights in the Declaration are individual rights. These regulations are consistent with the natural human rights perspective of Western countries, which consider individual rights as the core of human rights (Articles 1, 3, 13, 16, 17, and 19); and did not achieve consensus in the global community. For example, the preparation process for the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria (1993) and its content is one of the important premises that contributed to triggering the formation of an “Asian values” perspective on human rights and democracy in the 1970s and 1990s.

Evaluating “Asian values” of human rights and democracy, many Western scholars and politicians view it as opposing to popular values of human rights. There are even those who argue that “Asian values” are a threat to universal human rights values because they promote the values and rights of the community without giving due importance to basic individual rights and freedoms. The problem is that there needs to be a satisfactory and objective view of this point of view.

This reality shows that the process of realizing human rights in each country, even each continent, is different due to the actual conditions of that country and that continent. Thus, despite their universal nature, human rights cannot overcome specific contextual conditions when they are realized. And individual rights are only one aspect of human rights. Universal human rights are not limited to the Western conceptual framework of individual rights, civil and political rights of individuals, but also integrate the concept of human rights from other regions and include human rights in the economic, cultural, and social fields of social life. The concept of universal human rights, therefore, needs to include collective implications as well as cultural, social, and development rights, and so on.

These historical limitations have been gradually overcome by the UN, for example in the Declaration and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1953 and 1965, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966. Especially since the mid-1980s, the UN has proposed a series of third-generation collective human rights such as the right to develop, the right to live in a clean environment, the right to peace and the rights of women, children, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, and so on.

Thirdly, the Declaration presents a simplified and unbalanced relationship between rights and obligations. Inheriting the European legal tradition, the Declaration presents rights in 28 articles, but only one article discusses obligations, in general terms (Article 29). This limitation leads to the mistaken belief that human rights are absolute, unlimited, and unrestricted; whereas obligations and responsibilities are only derivative and secondary.

To this day, in the West, the limits of human rights have not received much attention from the public and the press. Most Westerners are unaware of limitations on rights, or the relativity of rights. When they hear that a right is being restricted somewhere, they immediately consider it a “violation” of human rights. They do not want to distinguish human rights restrictions according to the principle of proportionality between rights and obligations and whether human rights violations are adequate or inadequate. In fact, all human rights are not absolute but are always limited by accompanying obligations related to human rights, the interests of others and the need to protect the basis of the constitutional regime, morality, health, community order, ensuring national defense, national security, and so on.

To overcome this one-sided perception, in the 1980s, many famous scholars and politicians worldwide such as H. Smith (Germany), J. Carter (USA), Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore), etc., the International Action Council (InterAction Council) issued a “Joint Declaration on Human Obligations” to balance the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration includes 19 articles, stating: While recognizing the dignity of all people, their inalienable rights to freedom and equality, and their solidarity with each other, “the obligations of the human person are also necessary to be emphasized”. The statement argues that the concept of human obligation is intended to balance the concepts of freedom and responsibility. If rights are strongly associated with freedom, then obligations are associated with responsibilities. The statement emphasized: Simply maintaining the enjoyment of rights will cause conflicts; ignoring human responsibility leads to lawlessness, indiscipline, and chaos. To escape that situation, the Declaration calls for: Anyone with reason and conscience, in the spirit of solidarity, to have a responsibility towards family and society, and even towards race, ethnicity, and religion.

The above limitations create a diverse and complex situation in practice. On the one hand, all member countries acknowledge the philosophy and noble values of human rights and the spirit of humanitarian guidance; But on the other hand, each country has its perception and practice in implementing human rights. The actual diversity in aspects and fields of human rights assurance, the ideals, philosophical and ethical orientations of many needs about human rights in the world, etc., have ultimately undermined the effectiveness of the rights in the Declaration.

Some countries also take advantage of human rights issues according to their own “specificity” to politicize human rights issues. To resolve current conflicts and disputes between countries around the world regarding human rights issues, the reasonable path is dialogue and cooperation, and not the path of criticism, or the exploitation of violent intervention in the name of human rights. Therefore, dialogue and cooperation are the means to promote the proper realization of the rights stated in the Declaration.

3. Implementation status, directions, and solutions

To date, Vietnam has joined and signed dozens of international human rights conventions. To increasingly ensure the full range of human rights recognized in the Declaration and international law in general, Vietnam has actively taken legislative, executive, and judicial measures, implemented economic, social, and cultural development policies, and actively cooperated internationally in the field of human rights. During the renewal period, Vietnam has achieved significant success in ensuring and promoting human rights such as: continuous improvement of the right to living standards thanks to regularly achieving high economic growth; Widespread coverage of health insurance and social security; The proportion of women in politics is among the top in the world; The human development index is continuously increasing and is classified as high.

Currently, Vietnam is facing many negative impacts and challenges to the work of ensuring human rights, such as the increasing gap between the rich and the poor; Bureaucracy and corruption have not been prevented or repelled. However, achievements in ensuring human rights still outweigh the limitations, shortcomings, and challenges that the country is facing. Therefore, the imposition of a certain model of democracy and human rights from the outside will never be accepted by the Vietnamese people.

Directions and solutions to continue promoting human rights assurance in Vietnam in the spirit of the Declaration

Firstly, continue to strengthen international cooperation, focusing on calling on countries to understand and respect each other’s unique characteristics, unite, dialogue, and cooperate, to conscientiously implement international commitments on human rights. Actively contribute to solving global problems on the basis of promoting multilateralism, respecting international law and the UN Charter.

As a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term, Vietnam will proactively and actively participate in leading and promoting initiatives to make its mark and promote its interests in ways consistent with regulations and practices at the Human Rights Council. In particular, this includes prioritizing the clarification of the historical specificity in the universal (or widespread) nature of human rights stated in the Declaration. This universality is not an abstract concept or product of one nation or region assigned to other nations or regions but is the result of the synthesis of progressive values and norms of countries recognized, respected, protected, implemented, and promoted by the international community. At the same time, pay attention to grasping adjustments and developments in human rights in countries around the world to contribute to supplementing and developing some aspects of theoretical awareness on ensuring human rights and promoting dialogue, cooperation, and struggle in the field of human rights in accordance with current practice.

On that basis, we call on countries to understand and respect each other’s unique characteristics, unite, dialogue, and cooperate to dedicatedly implement international commitments on human rights and solve global problems on the basis of promoting multilateralism, respecting international law and the UN Charter. In particular, priority should be given to implementing the UN’s 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and commitments on adaptation to climate change. To ensure the full enjoyment of human rights globally, the UN Human Rights Council should play a vital role in promoting constructive dialogue, equality, and effective cooperation between countries on the basis of mutual respect and understanding and with a comprehensive approach to human rights.

As a member country of ASEAN and the United Nations, Vietnam needs to continue to strengthen international cooperation to take advantage of resources, and at the same time share opportunities and learn from the experiences of countries in the region and around the world in the field of ensuring human rights. Vietnam can implement a number of solutions, such as: Hosting forums to exchange experiences and share views in the field of human rights, especially on specific topics, such as preventing the trafficking of women and children; preventing the use of child labor; combating religious cults contrary to the nation’s good customs and traditions; etc., to contribute to the world’s understanding of the human rights situation in Vietnam, limiting confrontations and distortions by hostile forces in the field of human rights.

Secondly, continue to develop and improve the legal basis to enhance respect for, protection, implementation, and promotion of human rights in Vietnam.

To pursue this effectively, a comprehensive plan is needed in the national long-term and annual legislative strategy. This plan should continue to focus on institutionalizing the law on human rights as stipulated in the 2013 Constitution, especially identifying reasonable norms for further concretization; stipulating a mechanism to ensure enforcement based on selective inheritance and synchronous combination of national law and international treaties on human rights to effectively meet the requirements of integration, cooperation and development in the region and the world; continuing to make efforts to actively participate in international treaties on human rights; promoting the process of research, and evaluation and consideration to sign or join international human rights treaties that Vietnam has not yet joined.

Continue to promote state administrative reform to perfect the state apparatus organization according to the rule of law system; which attaches great importance to the streamlining of the government apparatus from central to local levels; implement clear and specific regulations on the functions and tasks of each agency to avoid overlapping and shifting responsibilities; continue to train and foster cadres, civil servants and public employees to improve ethical, political and professional qualities; overcome weaknesses such as bureaucracy, corruption, arrogance, and gatekeeping; continue to carry out citizen reception activities to resolve their problems, grievances and complaints to ensure the people’s rights. At the same time, strengthen the mechanism for monitoring and inspecting the activities of state agencies to promptly detect limitations or violations of human rights regulations.

Continue to closely combine economic development policies with social policies so that “economic growth is linked with social progress and justice”; strengthen international cooperation to attract investment to improve the material and spiritual life of all people; prioritize policies for vulnerable groups and gradually narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, in order to create a basis for exercising the people’s rights to equality, freedom, and democracy.

Thirdly, continue to raise awareness among officials and the people, especially state agencies, about human rights issues.

Enhance the education on Marxism - Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought and the Party’s views and policies, as well as the State’s laws on human rights so that all officials, party members, and people can raise their awareness of the law, respect, protect, implement, and promote human rights in life. It is necessary to continue integrating human rights education into the national education system (high school, vocational school, university) and political education within the Party school system.

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Received: August 14, 2023; Revised: September 5, 2023; Approved for publication: September 14, 2023.

Endnotes:

(1) See: Guđmudur Aleredsson and Asbjorn Eide (editors): Universal Declaration 1948 - Common goals of humankind, Labor and Social Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, p. 21-24.

(2), (4), (5) Center for Human Rights Research: Basic international documents on human rights, documents circulated internally, Hanoi, 1994, p. 34, 43, 44.

(3) See: Center for Human Rights Research: Universal Declaration and two 1966 covenants on human rights, Hanoi, August 2002.