The Soviets Keep Suggesting Changes…but Most Other People Think Everything Looks A-Okay
- They may have changed the wording around, but the Soviets aren't suggesting anything new. It's all been heard before—and it's all been rejected before.
- The United States supports folks who fight for what they believe in, but they also believe that majority rules, and that's that.
- It doesn't mean you give up your convictions. You can still fight for them, but you have to work with the majority in order to make progress.
- Cooperation is key, and it's pretty bold for the Soviets to bring up these amendments again considering they've already been overruled.
- The suggested amendment to Article 3 focuses on minorities, which the committee already decided needed further study because the Soviets want to focus more on group rights rather than individual rights.
- (Article 3 says, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.")
- The Soviet amendment to Article 20 tries to restrict the rights to freedom of opinion and expression and basically gives states the ability to deny those rights. It's this type of thing that leads to warmongering and other abuses of power.
- (Article 20 says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. No one may be compelled to belong to an association."
- You can't just suggest new material without improving on the stuff that already exists. And there's no sense in repeating yourself when it comes to discrimination because we've already covered that.
- Check out the following articles, where it's already covered:
- Article 22 says, "Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality."
- Article 2 says, "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional, or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."
- Basically, the Soviets want to give the state lots of power rather than the individual. If that happens, it turns the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into a big list of things governments have to do, and that's not the goal.
- Also, the Soviet request for a fourth session of the assembly is just bonkers. Their amendments were rejected, with six voting in favor of them and 26 opposed.
- Everyone has agreed that we need to approve this thing now.