Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
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.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
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.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(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.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Well, last night I was home for my brother's 25th birthday party. Happy birthday Ben!! It was good to be home. I don't think I really feel at home any more in my house but it's still pretty comforting because of the people that are here. In conversation I found that one of my brother's roommates was just in a huge car accident. He showed us pictures of how a bus had literally run over his small compact car. It was amazing and it was very obvious that he was very thankful to still be alive. Then he said that when the accident was happening he thought to himself, "Is all there is?" He was hoping there would be more to his life than that.
Now none of the following is meant to judge him or his moment of dissatisfaction, rather it is my own personal analysis and me trying to grasp my reaction to such a phenomenon. Would I have thought that had it happened to me? Would I have been disappointed with my life? Then the basic questions come up in my head. Should one ever be dissatisfied with one's life? In a goal oriented life, it seems logical that one's life could be cut short of reaching one's next goal and then one would be dissatisfied with one's life. Frankly I can't see how that wouldn't occur, save three situations. All of these work out of the basic assumption that a happy life is one in which one accomplishes their goals. I realize this isn't totally true, but it's close in the society we live in. It certainly is a large part of what makes a happy life. Fulfilling goals gives one a sense of accomplishment. There are other things that make our lives fullfiling but for the sake of limiting my writing I'll focus only on accomplising life goals.
First being that one accomplishes a major life goal and then instantly as they are basking in the moment, they are killed. Then they would die with a total sense of satisfaction and completeness unless they had some other greater life goal still looming in their head. So logically this death would have to occur after a pretty significant life goal. Personally, I immediately abandon hope in this option because the chances of it happening are slim to none unless your biggest life goal involves a high chance of death. Maybe there's something to be said about such goals in life. Go out with a bang. That's it, my newest life goal is to sky dive naked without a parachute. The sheer exhilaration of plummeting nude towards the earth. I wonder if the wind speed would cause chafing? I joke.
The second situation allowing a satisfied life being the abandonment of all goals. I immediately think of extremely old people who feel they have reached their time in life and they stop setting goals. I assume this occurs. Perhaps my perception here is ignorantly concieved. However, even without the old person example, a person could feel that they've accomplished most of their goals in life and just stop setting goals or just live without goals in the first place. This kind of throws the subject into a state of purposeless limbo. Just floating through life until death comes. It seems rather impossible to me because you're always trying to do something whether it be eating something, taking your next breath, or read the next word in a book. I'm of course addressing large, important life goals. One probably wouldn't die and think, "Damn! I never did get to brush my teeth that one last time!" However, when the bus rolls over the person's car, if they've lived a goalless life, they won't be feeling regret for not accomplishing those lack of goals. The only regret they may feel is for living a life without goals. But why should they set goals if death will only come to rob them of the satisfaction of the unfullfilled goals in life? Perhaps that's human life, living a life chasing goals you may never even be able to complete. Well, I don't believe that. So I press on to my third situation.
This third point is of course the one I'm trying to legitimize so I'll take this little break in the action to explain where my inspiration comes from. Recently I went to a church leadership conference in Atlanta, Georgia called Catalyst. It was supposed to be a spiritual awakening for next generation church leaders. However, in my opinion, it was just the same old stuff wrapped in more hype. But still, I tried to take somthing away from it. The theme this year was Epic. The whole idea that history is an epic story and we are part of it. Or that our lives are epic tales and we should live like that. Live like our lives are really important and what not. The idea that I had the most trouble with was this idea of setting goals. They kept using epic stories and movies as examples. But I couldn't see the analogy. For instance, in Lord of the Rings, Frodo has a very clear goal. He's to destroy the ring. After he completes his goal he lives happily ever after and even sails into the west with the elves to a place we're left to assume is heavenly and blissful. How does this at all relate to our lives? What is my ultimate goal that upon accomplishment, I'll go to heaven? In my experience of life and death, this is not how things work. The people I know who have died did not do so after accomplishing some great achievement. So this whole concept frustrated me because it was the basis for the way of life they were encouraging. A, "keep your eyes on the prize" kind of life. Sure, this is a great mentality when trying to accomplish a goal, but is that a good mentality to carry through life? Sure, there's the scripture about running the race with your eyes set on the goal. Philippians 3:14 "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." But it never says what that goal is.
So there is a third situation one could live in so that upon death one would not be dissatisfied with not completing the goals of ones life. What if one were to live with this goal in mind, "My goal is to be alive right now." From a christian standpoint, or not even just a christian stanpoint (I hope all people live their lives to love other people), I would say the goal of a Christian life is to love other people. Love is not some far off goal that will be reached one day. Either you are doing it or you aren't at this very moment. There's no future or past about it. Sure you can love in the future and you may have loved in the past but the only thing you can do at this moment about it is either love someone or not. Now is the only moment that you are actually alive. So if your only goal in life is to be alive right now you can never fail until you are dead, but then you're dead anyway. This may seem like a meaningless existaence but I would actually argue that because now is the only moment that you are alive, that every other kind of existence is equally meaningless. Frankly, I think they are less meaningful because everyone gets so caught up in setting goals and plainning for the future that they forget that they are only alive right now and if they don't enjoy the moment they live in they will never be able to enjoy any moment.
Lets talk about direction for a little bit. When I talk about this life of one goal, I don't mean to just sit around doing nothing all of the time, just being happy to be alive, although that's possible. One can have direction in life. I can hear critics saying right now that this is just another name for goal setting but I see a critical distinction between the two. The distinction is that the man who sets goals in his life draws his personal worth fromt he completiion of these goals. If you really disagree with me, just think about all of the things in life that typically give people worth, graduation from high school or college, marrying, having kids, buying a house, getting a job, doing something. We are taught that our worth comes from doing these things. "Set goals in life and do them" we are told. The man who lives with the one goal of being alive but lives with direction in his life draws his worth from being who he is. Imagine that. Defining one's self by one's self! But what is this direction I speak of. Lets imagine a man who owns a boat. His goal in life is to be sailing. he doesn't neccesarily want to sail to any particular place, he just wants to be sailing. He wants to be a sailor. So he gets in his boat and sails. Now he has to choose a direction. So he decides that sailing to Jamaica would be fun. At sea a huge storm comes and destroys his boat. The man drowns in the storm. Now here is the distinction. As it becomes evident to the man that he will not survive the storm, he can feel regret and dissatisfaction, or he can feel accomplishment and self worth. He can think to himself, "Damn! I never got to Jamaica! I have failed." Or he can say "I sailed! What a great adventure! My life is complete!" That is the distinction.
Now one might think that the only difference between those two points of view are the man's dying thoughts but that simply is not the case. Having this single goal of being (or loving, which to me are the same thing but maybe more on that later) will affect one's whole life. For instance, suppose the man in sailing towards Jamaica, looks westward and sees the beautiful coasts of Cuba. He is intrigued. If the man's goal is simply to be sailing and just happens to be sailing to Jamaica, he won't have a single thought about turning to sail along the beautiful coasts of Cuba, exploring as he may. However, the man who's goal is to reach Jamaica, will see Cuba as a distraction and will be too caught up in his goal to enjoy the beautiful nature that surrounds him. Frankly, all of his decisions along the way will be with Jamaica always in mind and he will live in a constant state of being short of his goal. That's the problem with living for an ultimate destination, until you get there, you aren't there. So for most of your life, you are about something wich you cannot experience. The man who wishes only to be a sailor will be continuously complete in his journey. For no matter where he is in the sea, he is a sailor. Even if he never would reach Jamaica, he would still be complete as a sailor.
So I suppose this is extremely exsistential but I think it's a legitimate way of living and frankly, the only way to actually be happy. If I can't be happy in the moment I'm in, I'll never be happy, because I'll always be in the moment I'm in. Otherwise, what happens when you get to Jamaica? What will make you happy then?
