Passage - General Questions

[Administrator]

Passage Discussion

This passage describes the development of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. The author is sympathetic to groups who had hoped that the UDHR would impose even greater obligation on UN members to defend human rights, but also argues that the document has had real value in creating legally binding human rights.

Structure:

• Paragraph 1: This paragraph traces the development of the UDHR as the first international treaty to expressly affirm universal respect for human rights. The UDHR was approved in 1948 at the encouragement of various small countries and non-governmental organizations, who felt that the 1945 UN Charter did not go far enough in ensuring human rights (you should note the Viewpoint of this group, and any other mentioned in the passage). To the disappointment of this group, however, the UDHR did not bind member countries to act in defense of human rights.
  
  Paragraph 2: Paragraph 2 describes the arduous, eight-stage, two-year process of drafting the UDHR. Broadly, the document establishes essential principles of freedom and equality for everyone, while also asserting fundamental human rights, such as the right to work, the right to leisure, and the right to education. As with any list you encounter, this list is likely to be used in a question.
  
  Paragraph 3: It is critical to understand the author’s viewpoint in this passage. The author offers both criticism and praise of the UDHR, noting that its biggest weakness is the lack of binding status and its greatest strength has been to set standards for other, binding declarations of human rights. Note, also, the author’s description of the UDHR as a “resolution of a purely programmatic nature.” Without context, it is unclear whether this description is praise, criticism, or simply explication, but within the paragraph, it is obvious that the author wishes the UDHR were more than “purely programmatic.”