Guys, I have to confess that the UDHR has impacted and inspired me in a way that no other work that I’ve read really has. It’s so hard to believe that nothing like it ever existed before the 20th century, despite the fact that it outlines many rights and freedoms which we totally take for granted and, to be honest, are really just common sense and decency. If you think about it, the UDHR is the culmination of several thousand years of bloodshed, protest and reform, all leading up to a single moment in which a bunch of humans decided to codify the concepts of equality, justice and freedom into a single document that applies not to one specific country or people group, but to all humans, everywhere. It’s universal.

But while I’ve been totally inspired and impacted by the scope of what the UDHR is trying to achieve, I’ve also been struggling to identify the practical purpose for the Declaration. I mean, the UDHR is not a legal document, and while it’s written in a very authoritative manner, there’s not really a whole lot of power behind it. Discrimination, violence and the denial of these basic rights occur locally, nationally and globally, and there’s really not a whole lot that can be done to stop it. Despite the noble intentions and inspiring ideals presented by the UDHR, I sometimes get the feeling that it’s a little hollow, that it’s a facade – an ideal that looks good on paper, but that humanity will never truly attain. It’s a very discouraging thought to consider that the state of humanity today, with all of our flaws and imperfections, may not significantly change within one hundred, or even one thousand years.

Yet in the midst of brooding over the impotency of the UDHR, I think I stumbled across what is, for me, its true meaning. Yes, the UDHR may be an ideal, but at least now humanity has a goal, something clearly defined that we can all strive to emulate and incorporate into our lives. Yes, there is relatively little legal authority behind the UDHR when people break and deny the rights that it so clearly presents, but then again, the point of the UDHR is not to set out strict rules and regulations, but rather to outline a set of ideals and principles that may guide humanity towards a brighter future. The Declaration of Independence in 1776 was not a formal constitution, and it did not include the large nor the multitudinous obscure laws which govern the United States of today. The Declaration of Independence described an ideal and a set of principles that still had to be fought bitterly for. It was not the Constitution, it was the Declaration. The UDHR declares that all people, everywhere, have certain inalienable rights and, perhaps once that principle is recognized and willingly accepted, humanity may evolve beyond the faults and flaws of today. The UDHR is meant to inspire humanity, as it has so profoundly inspired me, to recognize the essential rights of humans and continue to fight bitterly for them, not only in the interests of people today, but for those of generations yet to come.