Without moral leadership, the future of human rights bleak

Tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly, on December 10, 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration represents universal consensus that irrespective of the many things that differentiate individual human beings such as gender, race, marital status, age, wealth, or religion, there are certain rights that are so basic that these cannot be taken away from any person.

The declaration has had profound global influence, evidenced by the fact that it is the most translated document in human history. The declaration was a response to the horrors of the two World Wars from which the global powers that led its negotiations were emerging. They were anxious to avoid future atrocities by establishing norms of conduct that would be binding on all states, for the benefit of the individual person.