HUMAN RIGHTS: THE MORALITY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Since 1945 the UN Charter has contained articles on human rights. In 1948 the Commission on Human Rights created a universal declaration of human rights. In 1966 the UN Commission on Human Rights drafted not one but two covenants. Do these and other such documents constitute a universal morality? In some cases the documents themselves proclaim universal moral rights. In this paper, Douglas Birsch examines the basis for the claim that these and other such documents establish a universal morality. He traces the roots of such a claim to natural law theories and to pragmatic considerations related to benefits. Finally, Birsch considers the effectiveness of such a universal moral declaration. Does such a moral declaration have any actual chance to succeed practically, in the real world? Birsch documents both successes and failures of such UN declarations.