DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26560, 24 October 1951, Page 3

DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

UNITED NATIONS

WEEK

ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR N. C. PHILLIPS

The progress made during the last three centuries towards establishing rights for the people of the world were outlined by Professor N. C. Phillips, professor of history at Canterbury University College, in an address on the United Nations Declaration ot Human Rights to members of the Canterbury Employers’ Association, 'the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce last evening. The meeting was held as part of United Nations Week which opened on Monday. Professor Phillips said the United Nations declaration was the first document of its kind and it had a long past. In England to some extent the declaration of rights to its citizens dated from the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. The background to the conception of rights involved the relationship of the individual to the society in which he was living. Until the modern period; the problem of liberty and order was expressed in terms of the rights of individuals. During the ancient period —the Greek and Roman periods—rights were not postulated as belonging to the individual, he said. The rights were • all those of the community. The reason why the emphasis shifted from the community to the individual was partly attributable to the Renaissance, considerably due to the religious changes called the Reformation and also to the rise of capitalism. Man began to assert himself to free himself from religious persecution, from political oppression and above all from economic restrictions and from the State which imposed the laws. The doctrine of national rights was the product of a particular period and was the demands of a particular .class —the middle class. The demands resulted in civil liberties such as the right of trial, right of counsel and many others, he said. Then followed political rights, where the individual had a say as to who was to represent him in Parliament. “But the civil and political rights were not good enough as the world began to change,” he said. “They were not good enough, mainly because of changes of technology, or the industrial freedom of the press if the masses could not read, and these original rights came to be seen as an obstruction to the demands of the newly enfranchised masses,” said Professor Phillips. “The question of rights was uppermost in the thoughts of men as the Second World War began to draw to a close. The question of equality was very much to the fore in those days of 1945,” he said. Drafting the Declaration Commenting on the process of drafting the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Professor Phillips said the charter of the organisation contained no fewer than seven references to the rights of human beings. The drafting of the declaration was a long and complex business. Great difficulties confronted the persons charged with framing the declaration. They had to take into account the various histories of the different peoples. There were different-political philosophies and language difficulties. The declaration appeared to 'have achieved as much clarity and as little ambiguity as possible. He asked if it fulfilled the aspirations of al] men and women. Apart- from the first three, 17 of its first 20 articbi were based on human rights, he said. “It is a comprehensive declaration, not perfect of course, as it was the fruit of compromise.” One problem that arose was how to enforce it. Various methods suggested included petitions, inquiries, conciliation, commissions to inquire into alleged violations of rights, and that the Security Council should take up the-question of rights where they constituted a threat to peace. “I would say that the first task of the United Nations lies in the political field. If it does not keep peace, then its other work would go for nothing. Keeping the peace should be its first aim, but not its foremost. This Should be to make a good life possible for the masses,” concluded Professor Phillips.