16 June 1998

Bonn, Germany: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is fifty years old. In the preamble to its thirty articles, it notes the reaffirmation of "faith in fundamental human rights" outlined in the United Nations Charter. While understanding that both Charter and Declaration are aspirational, that they talk of faith in human rights is perhaps less familiar. An odd word at first sight: the layman might have expected "convictions" about such rights or "determination" to apply them.

The Declaration proclaimed, as a common standard of achievement, rights such as equality before the law; protection against arbitrary arrest; the right to a fair trial and freedom from ex post facto criminal laws; the right to own property; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; and freedom of peaceful assembly and association. To these civil and political rights it added the economic, social and cultural rights to work and choose one’s work freely, the right to earn equal pay for equal work and the right to education.

This didn’t suddenly happen in 1948 by magic. Men and women everywhere have struggled for these rights down the centuries. They contain little enough to disagree with, you’d think. Yet almost every one of them is infringed repeatedly in virtually every country - infringed by zealots and bigots, trampled on by organised criminals, terrorists, militias or even the supposed forces of law. The drafters of the Declaration were all too prophetic when they foresaw the need that "every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms …".

Volunteers see that, when applied, these principles make for a better governed society and one more favourable to development. The quest for human rights has led UNVs to morgues where they’ve had to check bodies for evidence of torture, to restore a baby stolen by a rich couple to its poor parents; to produce a newspaper for children of warring factions to read in common; to run sports events between rival tribes; to help secure release for those unjustly imprisoned; to register voters in the remotest hamlets; and to give street children opportunities which have eluded them. In such ways, volunteers go well beyond the rather passive concept of respect for human rights - they accept a full share of responsibility. That is what puts them in the tradition of rights campaigners down the ages.

If human rights are indeed articles of faith, they are, no less, matters of personal responsibility. Our organisations must address the challenges they pose, and as individuals we need to reflect this in our public and private lives.