Declaration of rights is 69 years old
Most Canadians take basic human rights for granted.
As we go about our daily lives, we blithely say what we please, worship mostly as we wish and hang out with whomever we want. We travel around the country as we need to. We expect to be able to vote in elections. The rights to a fair trial, to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, to legal counsel, and to freedom from unwarranted search and seizure of property feel like part of our societal DNA as Canadian citizens.
Although most of us would be unable to list all the rights described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or even in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we know when those rights are denied.
We’re dismayed — shocked — when anti-Semitic posters and graffiti show up at our universities. How can such violations happen here, in our sleepy communities?
We’re angered when we witness or hear of harassment or abuse based on race, gender or sexual orientation. What century do we live in?
Sixty-nine years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration lists 30 basic rights that apply to all people, regardless of race, nationality or gender.
They include the rights to equality in person and before the law, to fair trial, to be presumed innocent until found guilty, to education, to vote in democratic elections, to marriage and family, and to work and to rest. They also include freedom of religion and opinion, as well as freedom from discrimination, slavery and torture.
Many of the rights and freedoms later formed the basis of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, made law in our Constitution in 1982.
The declaration was a direct response to the atrocities of the Second World War. After the horrors and callous brutality of the concentration camps were revealed, the international community vowed never again to allow such crimes to occur.
Drafted by representatives of all regions of the world — including Canadian legal scholar and jurist John Humphries — and encompassing all legal traditions, the declaration is the most universal human-rights document in existence, and the most translated document in the world.
Of the 58 nations that were members of the UN 69 years ago, 48 voted in favour of the declaration. Canada was one of them. Hurray, Canada, for doing the right thing.
Because, despite all the fervent intentions and hope underlying the drafting of the declaration, Canada abstained during the resolution’s preliminary vote on Dec. 7, 1948. Yes, on that occasion — since blocked out of our collective memory — Canada aligned itself on the question of human rights with the Soviet Bloc.
Among its concerns, Canada was worried the declaration would give rights to communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Japanese-Canadians and Aboriginal Canadians. Egad. Canada also opposed economic and social rights. Oh, dear. In fact, we voted for the actual declaration on Dec. 10 only because we were so embarrassed by the earlier abstention. (Public shaming can be very effective.)
However, we’ve since collectively moved on and taken human rights into our polite, reserved Canadian hearts.
Most of us have, anyway. Maybe not those who have been littering the universities’ bulletin boards and hallways with racist and white-supremacist literature. Or who yell at nonCaucasian Canadian residents to “go home.” Or send emails threatening rape or violence to Canadian politicians who are women and/or LGBTQ.
As to our obligations to improve Indigenous rights in Canada, we’ve made small steps, but we’ve a long way to go.
Seventeen months ago, the City of Victoria declared 2017 A Year of Reconciliation, with the intent of “changing our practices and the landscape of the city to honour the past and create the future with our First Nations partners.”
This being the 69th anniversary of the declaration and the last month of 2017, it’s worth noting the city’s Year of Reconciliation designation follows the indefinite article. It is “A” Year of Reconciliation — potentially one of many.
Nonetheless, it marks the start of long-overdue, respectful consideration of our First Nations friends and neighbours — just as Dec. 10, 1948, marked the start of our recognition and implementation of human rights generally.