The No. 1 human right on the UDHR's long laundry list is freedom. "All human beings are born free" (1.1), the declaration says. It's the natural state of persons. The Blues Brothers knew it. The Rascals knew it. Nothing is more important.
But what does "free" mean? The rest of the list is an attempt to answer that very question by naming all the rights and conditions that free people are entitled to. Some of them are no-brainers—you can't be free if you're a slave or arbitrarily thrown in jail—but others present difficult questions.
For example, can you really be "free" if you're starving? What if you become sick and are unable to work? Don't you also need an education in order to be truly free?
The truth is that different people have different answers to the question of what freedom is. That's why the declaration was put in place—to try to set a universal standard. It's right there in the title.
Questions About Freedom
- According to the declaration, what are some necessary conditions for people to be free?
- In the text, what is the relationship between freedom and dignity?
- What were the four freedoms that the Allies fought for in World War II?
- What limitations does the text place on freedom?
Chew on This
You might be born free, but you need the right political and economic conditions to stay that way.
The U.N. probably knew that this freedom thing would be a hard sell to dictators like Stalin or to countries like South Africa with its apartheid government.