Maria Krauze
Omsk

International Experience And Perspectives On Development Of The Human Rughts

    On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human rights - a standard for human dignity. Some of the humanity's bravest lessons emerge only after the deepest tragedies. This Declaration appeared in a world ravaged by the horrors of militarism and fascism.
    In the half century, people managed progressively to expand the circle of full human dignity. Many of the countries emerged in the last 50 years have drawn inspiration from the Declaration in their constitutions. Courts of law look to the Declaration; it has laid the groundwork for the world's war crime tribunals; and it has prompted governments to set up their own commissions devoted to safeguarding basic liberties.
    And yet in spite of this progress, we have not expanded the circle of human dignity far enough. There are still too many men and women excluded from the fundamental rights proclaimed in the Declaration.
    The period of the last half century has been a huge paradox in many respects. The Declaration was a collective effort to say "never again" to the kind of abuses witnessed during World War II and the Holocaust. Voice was given to millions of people around the world who would otherwise have their efforts to achieve freedom and to establish basic human rights dissipated because no one would pay attention.
    On the other hand, we have seen continuing crises of basic and fundamental liberties. During the Cold War, for example, Stalinist forces moved in to crush the aspirations for liberty in Eastern Europe. Many of the same phenomena occurred in parts of Asia, particularly China. At the same time, the USA struggled with the terrible legacy of slavery and the legacy of having done so much to destroy basic indigenous cultures of Native Americans. Most recently, we've seen the emergence of terrible conflicts that have led to genocide such as in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. These are a constant reminder that there is a lot to be done in this direction, no matter how good rights may be on paper, leaders can stimulate conflicts and destroy whole countries and huge civilian populations through their manipulations and also be inspirers of terrorist groups.
    We still have widespread discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religious belief, and sexual orientation. There are 48 countries with more than one-fifth of the population living in "absolute poverty". Thus, international system's achievements in implementing human rights standards need fresh approaches. Obviously, we have achieved some progress, but count the results of 50 years of human rights mechanisms, 30 years of multibillion-dollar development programs - the global impact is quite underwhelming.
    The human rights movement has achieved legitimacy over these 50 years. It's a movement that reflects the growing positive forces of globalization. I believe it's having a role today among those struggling for human rights in China. Indonesia, Burma and Nigeria, places where very strong authoritarian regimes have succeeded in suppressing human rights. With the international resolve around Kosovo, there can be practical steps taken by the international community to deal with human rights abuses. This has got a long way to go before it becomes a truly effective international system with an enforcement process.
    The system of international protection of human rights should be significantly advanced. But that will mean much greater acceptance of the principle that internal developments inside a country that severely impact on the human rights of citizens are a matter of legitimate international concern. Right now that proposition is not as widely accepted as it should be.
    It will mean that the trend towards increasing ethnic and religious conflicts will have to be checked by international systems for preventing those conflicts in advance - by a combination of diplomatic and sometimes military means as well as by developing civil societies. So far, we have not put together a very effective preventive system for stopping these religious and ethnic conflicts. These are the things that are on the agenda for the next 50 years.