The Universal Human Rights
Universal human rights are fragile. They are violated every day, and some countries in Europe want to undermine them so that they only apply to certain people.
Human rights are the idea of universal rights for all people regardless of gender, nationality, religion, or other status. Under the UN, human rights are a declaration, while in Europe they are a convention that can be enforced.
But universal human rights are being violated all the time, while we just sit and watch.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights came about after World War II. 60 million people died during the global conflict, and it became clear to the Allies what atrocities were happening in Nazi Germany.
Jews and other political prisoners were murdered. Children were kidnapped from their parents. People from Nazi-occupied territories were used as forced laborers for the Nazis.
Death and destruction were to be replaced by diplomacy, and most countries in the newly formed UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the end of 1948.
Click here to read the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Declaration of Human Rights consists of 30 articles, which outline, among other things, the right to life and protection against torture, inhuman treatment, cruel punishment, and slavery.
Not all countries signed the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Saudi Arabia could not sign because of Article 18, which states that everyone has the right to change their faith and religion, and Article 16, which declares consent to marriage.
South Africa was also excluded because of the apartheid regime at the time, which generally did not comply with the Declaration of Human Rights. And the Soviet Union was outside because of Article 13, which gives people the right to leave their country.
The European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights is binding. It is a more detailed version of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950 and entered into force three years later.
The background for binding human rights is partly the atrocities committed during World War II, but also the recently emerged Eastern Bloc in Europe under Stalin’s control.
Click here to read the European Convention on Human Rights
If the countries in the Council of Europe do not comply with the Human Rights Convention, individuals can bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights. If they win their case, the country in question must comply and change its practices.
The UN Declaration of Human Rights does not provide the same opportunity. That is why we see UN countries repeatedly violating universal human rights.
However, there are also countries in Europe that either want to withdraw completely from the Human Rights Convention or abolish individual articles. This is worrying when you consider the background to both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Human Rights Convention.
Both were created as a result of death and destruction during World War II or Stalin’s tyrannical regime.
In Europe, it is particularly the United Kingdom and Denmark that want to undermine human rights. The two countries want easier access to deport people with immigrant backgrounds if they have committed a crime.
For them, it is particularly Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention, which guarantees respect for private and family life. In several cases, Article 8 has prevented countries from deporting criminals because they would lose their family life.
However, any erosion of human rights is a slippery slope. Human rights are universal. They apply regardless of your gender, religion, skin color, or whether you have committed a crime.
If we make exceptions for people with immigrant backgrounds, for example, then none of the human rights are valid anymore. A country can legislate that it is criminal for Muslims to ride bicycles, punish them, and deport them to countries where they may never have set foot.
In Nazi Germany, the Nuremberg Laws restricted Jews’ access to transportation. It is precisely Nazi Germany’s inhumane treatment of minorities that the Human Rights Convention seeks to prevent.
Right now, protection is guaranteed in Europe because the Convention on Human Rights is binding. In many other countries, this protection does not exist at all because the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is merely an idea that we are the good guys.
And if we amend the European Convention on Human Rights so that some groups are exempt, it will also end up being nothing more than a pat on the back, because we are not like Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, which were the evil ones.