Rights Of Man

Today is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Six countries failed to sign it when it was presented in Paris on December 10 1948.
Among them was Saudi Arabia, fearful of the implications of giving legal recognition to freedom of religion.
The Soviet Union also abstained from signing the declaration.
It is no surprise Stalin didn't sign the charter. After all he would have been a hypocrite to put his signature to a document which ran counter to EVERYTHING he stood for.
The Soviet Union stood for the murder of human rights on an industrial scale.
South Africa didn't sign the declaration either. Presumably, the white minority government preferred to remain outside an international political framework that would have insisted on freedom for South Africa's majority black population.
The 1948 Declaration of Human Rights was NOT the first of its kind.
The United States got the ball rolling way back in 1776.
Tom Paine helped the world on the path to human political freedom.
His thirst for Common Sense gave birth to a new world order.
Reason would replace superstition.
The French brought Paine's Common Sense to Europe in 1789.
Man was to be liberated from the dogma of the past, the chains of aristocratic slavery and the serfdom of rigid Christian belief.
Both the American and French Declarations changed the world in many more ways than the 1948 version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
1948 was a fragile period in World history.
The victors of the bloody Second World War believed a Universal Declaration (rather re-declaration) of fundamental Human Rights would help the world to heal from the wounds inflicted during the 30 years of conflict between democracy and fascism (1918-1948).
Either way, the inalienable right of each man - and woman - to be free is something worth reaffirming every second of every day.
Long live freedom.