Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): Freedom Quotes

The freedoms referenced here were the Allies' proclaimed purpose in fighting World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt originally came up with the idea of "four freedoms," presenting the war as a humanitarian endeavor. Today, these freedoms really represent the values of the modern United Nations, and all the political, philanthropic, and cultural work that it does.

In 1943, artist Norman Rockwell published four illustrations of these freedoms in The Saturday Evening Post. Check 'em out. 

This is pretty much the underlying idea behind all modern human rights philosophies. The old world was all about authority. It featured slavery, serfdom, imperialism, and classism. But the new world under the United Nations was supposed to embrace the higher principles of humanitarianism.

If you want to talk about things that are incompatible with human rights, slavery would top the list. Abolitionists the world over had been trying to end slavery since the 1800s (at least), but during World War II, forced labor drove the Nazi Germany war machine. Sadly, slavery still persists against international law in the contemporary world.

According to the declaration, voting isn't just a right you have as a citizen of a country: it's a human right, too. It's hard to overstate how huge an idea that is. The document is basically saying that democratic government (in some form) is required all over the world. Saudi Arabia just got on board with equal suffrage in 2015, when women were grated the right to vote in municipal elections for the first time.

One of the ways people define freedom is as an ability to do what you want. This article declares that your freedom is unlimited in that way—except where it would interfere with someone else's freedom or create a disorderly society. Anarchy is bad, m'kay?