THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AT 75: LAME OR LUMINOUS?
2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Was it the most important legal document of the 20th century, still hale and hearty in the 21st century, or is it past its prime? It has been surrounded by myth and misunderstanding. It has been misunderstood, misquoted and sometimes mismanaged. It has been called racist and misogynistic. Yet it remains a legal, social and cultural lodestone. How can this be? This series of 7 podcasts looks into these questions, but rather than being simply a legalistic or philosophical discussion, it looks at the people behind the idea that has become human rights. How ancient are human rights? Are revolutions necessary to create human rights? Is passion important? What happened in the 20 th century to provide the impulses towards the Universal Declaration? How was it drafted in the United Nations in a Cold War climate? Is it still relevant today and how is it being used or misused? The presenter, Dr Phillip Tahmindjis, is an Australian human rights lawyer and former Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. In that capacity he has undertaken human rights training all over the world (including Libya, Nepal and Swaziland/Eswatini), undertaken human rights capacity building programs in Afghanistan and Myanmar, drafted guidelines for human rights fact-finding and reporting, and consults with governments and industry on implementation of human rights and anti-discrimination measures. In 2012 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the international community and human rights.
Episodes
This episode considers the relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
today, in spite of the political compromises which surrounded its drafting, resulting in
ambiguous norms which rely on domestic legal systems for meaning as well as
effective implementation.
As the previous episodes have shown, impulses towards individual rights and
freedoms have always been conflicting and conflicted, and have never ex...
This episode describes the drafting process of the Universal Declaration within the United Nations. It was fundamentally different from its eighteenth-century antecedents in that the process involved every UN member, myriad Non-Governmental Organisations and dozens of highly committed individuals.
However, there was opposition to it (from the UN Secretary-General down) and debates became fractious in the climate of the Cold War. Th...
While the 19th century had seen some advances in rights for people (the abolition of the slave trade; protection of people in times of war), they were advances for specific groups of people rather than for all human beings.
At the start of the 20th century there were several organisations from many parts of the world which were concerned about rights. These were the initiatives of concerned
individuals rather than governments.
A...
After the reaction against natural rights at the end of the 18th century, was a gentler touch, rather than a kick start, needed to massage human rights into life?
This episode looks at the 19th century, which began as the Age of Romanticism, and which saw the abolition of the slave trade, but which was also an age of industrialisation, imperialism and racism. Movements towards a human rights sensibility were largely the result o...
This episode considers the similarities and differences between the US and French revolutions and the resulting Declarations, and the reactions outside the United States and France to these.
While some applauded the new focus on rights, others were appalled at the bloodshed, particularly that occurring in France during the Terror. Thus, while some, like Thomas Paine, built on Locke’s ideas of natural rights, others, like Edmund Bur...
This podcast considers revolutions in religion, society and politics, and some of the people involved in them, and their effects on the notions of rights.
The Reformation helped to detach notions of rights and the authority of the (Catholic) church from earlier notions of natural law. The Renaissance saw an increased focus on the individual. But the effects of these were neither consistent nor universal.
A revolution in England, ...
This is the first podcast in a series to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It considers whether human rights have an ancient pedigree in law, ethics, politics and religion. Do the Code of Hammurabi and the Cyrus Cylinder offer any clues to the origins? What was the nature of rights in ancient Greece?
How important was the growth of the political influence of Christianity? What was the impact of...
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