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When you know you don't have to enforce them you make make your declaration say anything you want. Real, worthwhile documents like the United States Constituti
by vivekd 9y ago
When you know you don't have to enforce them you make make your declaration say anything you want. Real, worthwhile documents like the United States Constitution mean something because you can take it into a courtroom and enforce it.
These things aren't real declarations because they don't provide any real rights that you can enforce, just fancy PR documents.
Things like
>Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Sound great until you realize that most of the planet lives in poverty - how realistic is it to fight for paid holidays on a planet where most people don't even get paid enough to live? Plus the U.N. has done exactly nothing to ensure people get paid holidays. . . as a matter of fact, they've done nothing to enforce or even advocate for many of the rights in their declaration.
These people don't understand that rights were meant to be limitation on government power to secure freedom, not expansions of government power to chase pipe dreams
- xg15 9y agoThe purpose is different. The declaration of human rights is not a concrete, enforceable document but a common moral and philosophical base line that people commit to and that can e.g. influence making (or applying) laws. It's less about where we are and more about where we want to go. There are always people who bring in extreme cultural relativism to argue for all kinds of ethical transgressions: "Hey, who says child labor is exploitation? Maybe some people are fine with working 24/7 without pay and selling their children. What do we know?" Human rights can be used to find arguments against stuff like that.
- afarrell 9y ago> that people commit to The parent is arguing that people haven't actually committed to them because they clearly haven't paid the cost actually involved in that commitment.