We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
@Larks, I think you might have misread it/or I might not have written it down clearly. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a milestone document in the history of human rights because it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected worldwide. In international law, a declaration is distinct from a treaty in that it generally states aspirations or understandings among the parties, rather than binding obligations. The Declaration was explicitly adopted to reflect and elaborate on the customary international law reflected in the “fundamental freedoms” and “human rights” referenced in the United Nations Charter, which is binding on all member states. For this reason, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a fundamental constitutive document of the United Nations and, by extension, all 193 parties (member states/countries) of the UN Charter.The US Declaration of Independence is not a universal declaration on fundamental human rights. It is a national US declaration and has no international value.
Surely this is not true. See for example the US Declaration of Independence, which took place 172 years earlier:
@Larks, I think you might have misread it/or I might not have written it down clearly. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a milestone document in the history of human rights because it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected worldwide. In international law, a declaration is distinct from a treaty in that it generally states aspirations or understandings among the parties, rather than binding obligations. The Declaration was explicitly adopted to reflect and elaborate on the customary international law reflected in the “fundamental freedoms” and “human rights” referenced in the United Nations Charter, which is binding on all member states. For this reason, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a fundamental constitutive document of the United Nations and, by extension, all 193 parties (member states/countries) of the UN Charter.The US Declaration of Independence is not a universal declaration on fundamental human rights. It is a national US declaration and has no international value.