Background in Foreign Affairs and United Nations. Studies: BSc Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, MSc Political Science: International Relations; LLM Law and Politics of International Security From Amsterdam, currently located in New York
Lisa G
Karma: 41
@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.