It's Not Law, It's a Guideline
- Yeah, some of the articles are pretty broad, but Article 30 is designed to keep us in line.
- (Article 30 says, "Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.")
- For example, "Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country." (32)
- Equality and nondiscrimination are all well and good, but the United States would limit that so folks with bad intentions or who ignore the laws in the Constitution don't infringe upon the rights of all the people who follow the rules.
- Also, the United States has made it pretty clear that while all people have the right to the economic, social, and cultural freedoms listed in the declaration, governments have no obligation to take direct action to make them happen.
- Check out Article 23, which says, "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests."
- In other words, for the United States, that whole "American dream" thing means people have every right to be super successful economically and socially, but the U.S. government isn't going to take any direct governmental action to make that happen.
- Remember, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights isn't international law, but a document with basic principles and freedoms all people deserve.