Human rights and the United Nations

Balancing between the member states’ interests and universalism

Authors

• Anna Kronlund Turun yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1093-5278

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70483/kp.145637

Keywords:

universalism, human rights, United Nations, politics, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Abstract

Human rights form one of the three founding pillars of the United Nations (UN). The UN’s human rights regime, the so-called ‘Bill of Rights’ includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the General Assembly in 1948 as well as the later passed conventions on political and civil rights and social, cultural and economic rights. Human rights discourse is often seen as normative or as an ideational in which the concept of universalism is central. While the principle of universalism is generally accepted, the conception of universalism is by no means without any contestation among the UN member states. This article considers how the UN member states have considered the principle of universalism in respect to human rights by investigating how universalism is used in the political discussions on human rights in the United Nations when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was formulated in the late 1940’s and when the UN Human Rights Council was established in 2006. The idea is to examine human rights in the UN context when the member states have different interests and objectives on the one hand but are still committed to the principle of universalism on the other hand.

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