Human Rights and The United Nations

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The promotion and protection of human rights became a major issue for the United Nations at the end of the Second World War. The trials held to convict Nazi and Japanese officials for crimes against humanity forced the issue to a center stage. Although the trials were conducted, the crime against humanity charge was without supporting legal documentation.

At the end of the war, a definition of what human rights are for all individuals was undertaken. In 1948 a Canadian law professor, John Humphrey, developed a document entitled the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document states that human rights are for all human beings, regardless of "race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." It established a legal standard of human dignity, regardless of country.

Bosnia War Crimes

The first major use of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has come as a result of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. A Bosnian-Serb, Dusko Tadic was charged with several crimes against humanity including rape, torture and murder. Using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the basis for the trials, he was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison.

Tadic's trial was the first of its kind since shortly after the end of the Second World War. It revolved around violations of human rights in Kosovo. This recent trial was very similar to the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders. Both situations required the court to reconstruct historical events to determine the guilt of those involved. In the case of the Nazis, the meticulous records they kept of prisoners in concentration camps were used to incriminate them. In Bosnia mass graves were dug up to determine the scope of the crime. Other cases are pending for atrocities that occurred during the civil war in Rwanda during the mid-1990s.

The United Nations has taken the important step of bringing to justice those who step outside of acknowledged human behaviors. Unfortunately, gathering evidence and bringing the accused to justice can be a very difficult task. The UN has established a precedent for seeking justice in areas of the world where human rights have been violated. The hope is that justice can be served to those individuals who commit atrocities, regardless of their location in the world.