31. Negotiation on the Ground: Realizing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in South Africa, Nigeria and Peru
- Author:
- Natasha Sawh
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
- Abstract:
- When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) came into force in 1948, the horrific memory of the Holocaust was fresh in the minds of the drafters. The rise of Nazism in Germany was made possible in large part by the severe economic depression the country suffered. In 1941, President Roosevelt outlined four essential freedoms he believed to be achievable worldwide within a generation, including freedom from want. In his 1944 State of the Union address, he stated a pragmatic rationale for socio-economic rights: “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made” (cited in Eide 1995, p.29). In the aftermath of WWII, the importance of international standards that could protect all human beings against state oppression was clear. As a result, a group of influential states agreed upon the UDHR, which expressed a bold and comprehensive vision of human rights that included political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. Its preamble envisions the “advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want.”
- Topic:
- Civil Society and Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- Africa, South Africa, Germany, Latin America, Nigeria, and Peru