December 10, 2007 marks the 59th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by 56 members of the United Nations. The declaration marks the first time that a majority of the world's representatives have sought to articulate a vision of human rights that is neither sectarian nor bound by national status and state jurisdictions. The UDHR visualises the rights inherent in people by virtue of their status as human beings.

Codified and customary laws have stated the rights and responsibilities of people: go all the way back in history to the codes of Hammurabi, Manu and Solon in Babylonian, Indian and Greek civilizations, as well as to the traditions of the eight-fold path and golden mean of Buddha. While the Mosaic, Biblical and Islamic codes enjoin duties such as non-violence, hospitality and charity they have often been restricted to members of a particular society or order.

More recent documents in history, such as the 13th century Magna Carta of England and the US Declaration of Independence, have in practice ignored the rights of entire sections of their societies, including slaves, women, indigenous people and colonial subjects.

All human beings are equal

The 30 articles of the UDHR, beginning with the statement that all human beings are equal and endowed with reason, are a united statement on the economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights of all persons. The UDHR for the first time laid down the basic standards that states and institutions are required to meet to ensure a life of dignity for people everywhere. Thus, violation of these rights is in effect treating a person or a group as though they were not human, and to advocate the enforcement of the rights is to demand that the human dignity of the persons in question - be they refugees, political prisoners or victims of apartheid policies - be respected.

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the declaration, it is apposite to consider both the achievements and failures of the declaration. The singular achievement of the UDHR is that it has acquired the status of customary international law and has an unrivalled moral standing as the touchstone against which the actions of states and powerful institutions are judged. However, being a declaration, and not a binding treaty, the UDHR does not have any provisions for enforcement.

Framework for action

Despite the fact that people cannot seek legal injunction declaring the articles as inviolable, the UDHR provides both a strong moral sanction and an intellectual framework for action. It is not uncommon for political dissidents and activists ranging from opponents of apartheid and racist policies to investigators of war crimes and state-sponsored terror, to opponents of repressive press laws and curbs on the right to expression to invoke the UDHR as setting the normative standards for their actions and demands.

Despite the fact that governments have the means of passing and enforcing repressive laws, and while such legislation - such as restrictions on the right to a fair and free trial - might even be upheld as "legal" by their respective legislative and judicial bodies, these policies can still be opposed and condemned as illegitimate on the grounds that they violate either the letter or the spirit of the UDHR.

Inspiration to challenge violaters of human rights

The UN Commission on Human Rights has sought to establish a mechanism for enforcing the UDHR by means of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) - which together with the UDHR constitute the International Bill of Human Rights - but these have had limited practical results in the absence of a single body where such rights are universally justifiable.

Regardless of these limitations, the UDHR provides the inspiration, legitimacy and practical framework to organisations and individuals that challenge governments and state-backed institutions that violate human rights. Be it detainees in Gauntanamo Bay, dissidents in China or refugees in Palestine, governments everywhere are called to account for their activities. No action of the government and institutions in response to the critics is considered legitimate unless it meets the standards of the UDHR. The UDHR serves as the moral basis in the struggle against oppression and for human rights everywhere.