UDHR Update

Per a discussion at Flying Dog last Thursday with some other members of staff, I’ve found the entire text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The parts I think are useless/silly are below:

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.(The part about privacy is fine, but not being libeled or slandered is a human right?)

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. (Most of this doesn’t seem to mean anything, but state-sponsored retirement is a human right? Give me a break. Secondly, I take objection to “economic rights” if that means anything other than the right to participate in meritocracy without discrimination, which I would assume it does in this case, the assertion is certainly flawed.)

Article 23

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (So, you’ve not only a right to be paid for your work, but you’ve also got a right to money from the government if you do not have the skills to get a better job?)

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. (Paid vacation is a human right, I think not.)

Those are just a few of the bits that don’t seem to be “human rights.” Look up the rest, tell me what you think. I’d be interested to know.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2003 at 18:10 by Timothy and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.