.: HUMAN RIGHTS COURSE :.

2.6 HUMAN RIGHTS IN OUR TIME

Even though the world is moving forwards, it is not the case that everyone automatically benefits from this development. Despite the fact that the population of the world, as a whole, has never been as rich and knowledgeable as it is today, the greatest human rights related challenge is still that people are going hungry. A total of 1.2 billon people have too little food and 800 million of these are chronically undernourished. At the same time, in just one country – the USA – in just one year, 400,000 people underwent liposuction. This illustrates the great differences and challenges that exist in our time and which we have a responsibility to do something about. Working to implement human rights the world over can change this situation.

The international human rights system has undergone immense development since the Universal Declaration was adopted in 1948. Because the declaration is not legally binding, the UN's Commission on Human Rights continued its work. This involved getting the member states to commit themselves to following these rules – i.e. turning human rights into national laws with which the states had to comply. This took 18 long years. It was not until 1966 that work on “the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” and “the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” was completed. The process had been delayed by the Cold War. The documents did not become legally enforceable (valid) until 35 states had ratified them (subjected them to a special procedure and signed them) and this did not happen until 1976. So far, just under 150 of the world’s almost 200 states have ratified these two conventions. The Universal Declaration of 1948 and the conventions from 1966 form the actual foundation of the international human rights system. These three documents are collectively called “The International Bill of Human Rights”.

Other inter-governmental organisations than just the UN also work to promote human rights: the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), among others. Thousands of voluntary organisations and individuals also work for human rights.

Perhaps you would also like to work to increase respect for human rights?

Many of the people going hungry live in countries that, as a whole, produce enough food. However the farmers who cultivate the earth sell their products to foreign countries in, for example, the West, where they can earn more for their goods than in their own countries.

53% of Indian children are undernourished. At the same time, the state of India spends billions of NOK on developing a nuclear arsenal. Thus, paradoxically, India is spending its money building up its military capacity to defend the greatest concentration of poor people on earth.