UDHR 7: Universal Rights

You may find these background resources useful for this lesson idea:

• Overview to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights Timeline
• The Text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In 1947, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) wrote a "Statement on Human Rights" in response to the drafting of the UDHR. The statement asks, "How can the proposed Declaration be applicable to all human beings, and not be a statement of rights conceived only in terms of the values prevalent in countries of Western Europe and America?" The AAA questions whether any document can be universal, since individuals, it explains, cannot exist outside of their own culture; an individual could not have an identity separate from their cultural identity.   In this document, the AAA asks, in this case, whether the document can be universal if it reflects values of Western Europe and America? The UDHR is based on the belief that there is something basic and universal (across time, geography, language, and culture) that connects all human beings. Human Rights scholar Mary Ann Glendon explains:

[The idea of universality of human rights] is an idea that comes out of Western traditions, but even though that idea and the form and style can be said to be Western, it is impressive that in 1947 and 1948 representatives of Asian cultures, nine countries with predominantly Muslim populations, along with Latin America, Europe and the United States - all those representatives were able to sign on to those principles as universals.