1.3 HUMAN RIGHTS - A GOAL

Human rights work is laborious and long-term. States first agree on a declaration and then often produce legally binding conventions. The third step is the states observing their obligations. This is an important stage in which words are transformed into actions.

The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 was a great step forward. For the first time in history there was agreement on common rights for all people in all parts of the world. Since then more documents have been produced that develop human rights and more organisations have been set up to work to achieve the goals. Today there is a large international human rights system that works to produce better living conditions for people the world over.

Nonetheless, everyday we read of people who are suffering distress and being oppressed in newspapers and see them on TV. There are still many states that discriminate and do not ensure their citizens social benefits, and even if a state wants to develop its health service and education provision, it may lack the resources to do so. The implementation of some rights requires more resources than others. It is more "expensive" to ensure universal schooling, health services and social benefits than it is to ensure universal freedom of expression and religion.

Many people therefore say that the world community has come a long way as far as defining human rights is concerned, but there is a shortage of putting them into action.

Change takes time. But work is being done every day, by the UN and other international organisations, by states and by voluntary organisations to ensure that more people's human rights are observed. All of them use the international documents on human rights as tools. It is therefore important to learn about human rights because we can only demand them if we know what they are. And only by knowing what they are can we learn to respect other people's human rights, show solidarity and work for a better and fairer world.