Brief Summary
The Setup
During World War II, the Allies proclaimed that they were fighting to protect humanity and establish universal freedom. They decided to call themselves the United Nations, a catchy name that stuck around when they created the League of Nations 2.0 after the war.
In 1948, the U.N. adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in order to establish exactly what human rights are. The document took about two years to write. The UDHR was a direct response to the atrocities of World War II and a list of the values of the United Nations—mostly stuff about freedom, dignity, and peace.
The Text
The preamble, or introduction, states the reasons for creating the declaration. The idea was for all the countries in the world to recognize the freedom of all humans, promote peace and progress, and prevent future crimes against humanity. At the time it was presented, the UDHR was not an actual international law, but rather an expression of shared values that everyone agreed to pursue.
The 30 articles, or sections, address a wide range of rights that fall into a few different categories. The first two articles provide a baseline: everyone is born free and equal regardless of their identity and nationality. These words are an expression of what it means (or should mean) to be human.
The rest of the articles establish:
- The basic rights of the individual against things like slavery, torture, and disenfranchisement.
- Political rights, such as guaranteeing that everyone has the right to be a citizen of a country.
- Freedom of thought, expression, and religion.
- The right to work and economic security.
- The responsibility people have to create societies where they can exercise their rights.
In terms of authority, the UDHR falls somewhere between an honor code and an actual law. It's a resolution that (almost) every U.N. country has agreed to abide by, but enforcing its particulars down to the letter is largely up to individual countries.
TL;DR
Everyone in the world is free and entitled to basic human rights, regardless of—well, regardless of anything.