Our inalienable rights - Mark A. Schapiro

Seventy-one years ago, after the atrocities of the Holocaust bore witness to the systematic deaths of six million Jews, world leaders began to seek to identify what constitutes our fundamental human rights. Prior to 1948, human rights were often overlooked by the despots of history. Human history has been plagued by various forms of persecution by some against others because of racial prejudice, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or cultural difference. In today’s splintered world, it is sometimes difficult to find commonalities that we can embrace as an integral part of our communities. But International Human Rights Day, which was celebrated this week, reminded us that it was not so long ago that the world came together to do exactly that.  On December 10, 1948, the United Nations unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a set of rights to which all individuals are entitled: the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to freedom of religion or belief; the right to freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly; the right to form and join trade unions.  Under the UDHR, every...