Curtis, Josh; Darcy, Shane --- "The Right to a Social and International Order for the Realisation of Human Rights: Article 28 of the Universal Declaration and International Cooperation" [2012] ELECD 785; in Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne (eds), "The Challenge of Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Challenge of Human Rights

Editor(s): Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939005

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: The Right to a Social and International Order for the Realisation of Human Rights: Article 28 of the Universal Declaration and International Cooperation

Author(s): Curtis, Josh; Darcy, Shane

Number of pages: 27

Extract:

1. The right to a social and
international order for the
realization of human rights: Article
28 of the Universal Declaration and
international cooperation
Josh Curtis and Shane Darcy

The United Nations declared in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights that `everyone is entitled to a social and international order in
which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully
realised'. It is an intriguing provision, in that Article 28 seems to straddle
the line between the substantive rights of the Declaration and the last few
articles, which do not speak of rights themselves, but rather of duties and
limitations. It was important that this foundational document recognized
the entitlement of every individual to a social and international order
in which the rights and freedoms of the Declaration could be fully real-
ized, for it shows an understanding of how context, both nationally and
internationally, impacts on the enjoyment of human rights. The emerging
globalization of the post-war world is now a fully fledged reality, and it is
clear that the realization of human rights is challenged not just by national
set-ups but also by developments at the regional or global level, notably
regarding trade, investment and finance, not to mention environmental
changes attributable to climate change.
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of 1948, we have seen
the construction of significant human rights machinery at the interna-
tional, regional and national levels. Colonialism, the great antithesis of
human rights, has formally ...