This Week in History: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

“All human beings are born free and equal,” according to Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, 77 years on from its adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, it is estimated that 50 million people globally are living in modern slavery, while global inequality has tripled since 1960. 

A strong narrative for human rights emerged following the atrocities and devastation committed during the Second World War, driven by Eleanor Roosevelt. The Commission for Human Rights consisted of 18 members from various political, cultural, and religious backgrounds who, for the first time, drafted a legal standard of conduct for all. On 10 December 1948, 48 countries voted to adopt the Universal Declaration, with the remaining nine abstaining. The expectation that states would be held accountable for human rights violations had been codified as an integral feature of a free and democratic world. Yet the context of colonial rule and the Cold War in which this occurred is too often forgotten. 

The 30 Articles of the Declaration of Human Rights are based on the notion of universality derived from the liberal philosophical framework. They set out the moral principles and norms that describe common standards and protect people’s civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, prioritising individual liberty, given the heavy influence of Western powers. Whilst the Declaration has provided powerful language that pioneered the codification of human dignity, power relations are too often obscured by the language of universality, facilitating what critics call the utopian project of Western international relations. Although the document uses broad language to try to bridge the international divide, many post-colonial and Global South scholars have challenged its cultural relativism, given its individualist approach rather than the collective or communal rights that are central to non-Western communities. 

The struggle to implement international human rights since 1948 can be seen as its greatest weakness, given the paradox it creates with the UN Charter, which protects state sovereignty. This helps to explain why the last 77 years have certainly not been free or equal for all. Perhaps a more nuanced approach in the post-colonial and Cold War world would take the Declaration beyond powerful language based on relations of power to a functional mechanism of accountability that empowers and respects local agency. In addition, its 20th-century framework now faces 21st-century challenges, such as the climate emergency and AI, which it needs to account for. 

Bibliography 

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Hickel, Jason, ‘Is Global Inequality Getting Better or Worse? A Critique of the World Bank’s Convergence Narrative’, Third World Quarterly, 38.10 (2017), pp. 2208–10 https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2017.1333414 [accessed 20 December 2025]. 

Kapur, Ratna, ‘Human Rights’, in The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, ed. by John Baylis, Steve Smith, and Patricia Owens, 9th edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), pp. 505–21 https://doi.org/10.1093/hepl/9780192898142.003.0032 [accessed 20 December 2025]. 

United Nations, ‘International Day for the Abolition of Slavery’, United Nations, 2021 https://www.un.org/en/observances/slavery-abolition-day [accessed 20 December 2025]. 

‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’, United Nations, 1948 https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights [accessed 20 December 2025].