Preamble section 6:
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Discussion

  1. Universalizing and Internationalizing Human Rights
  2. Examples of the Universalization of Human Rights in Post-Apartheid South Africa
  3. The United States and International Human Rights
  4. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  5. In Cooperation with the United Nations

The United States and International Human Rights

Reed Brody
Why do you think that the USA is currently challenging the universality of the UDHR?
Several scholars and human rights practitioners, such as Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, suggest that there is a new challenge today to the universality of the Universal Declaration, this time emanating from the United States, the country whose influence predominated in both the drafting and the internationalizing of the Declaration. The suggestion is that the US regards international human rights as for "export only" and is reluctant to allow these standards to be applied to itself.

Reed Brody
How do you see the future of the US position?
Reed Brody
You are a human rights litigator both in and from the United States. How do you see this as both advantageous and disadvantageous
Michael Ratner
How do you see the US applying international human rights standards to itself?

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Peter Danchin, Columbia University