A Closer Look at the Beijing Declaration on Human Rights
The ‘national conditions’ and the ‘needs of the people’ (however you define), are two valid points that the Declaration has brought into consideration that most often the Western countries and the UN organizations neglect in their heavily legalistic or political approaches to human rights.
- Commendable commitment to universality of human rights.
- Has emphasized the particularities of developing countries.
- Interdependence of civil/political rights and economic/social/cultural rights are highlighted.
- Human freedom is reinterpreted.
- Responsibilities along with rights are correctly emphasized.
- Oversight of women’s rights is a weakness.
- Key issues however are related to the implementation.
( December 17, 2017, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) If I were at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights the other day (7 and 8 December), I would have proposed the following sentence, after the first two sentences in Article 1 of the Beijing Declaration on Human Rights.
“This however should not be taken as an excuse to deny or delay the human rights implementation in respective countries.”
The first two sentences are the following:
