By Utyomova Anastasia
25 of April, 2010
Influence of Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the law of the Commonwealth of Independent States
People lived on our planet from immemorial times. Sometimes it seems that everything is aimed to turn to advantage. It has always been so. When it were barbarians times, each tried to become a leader or at least to get closer to him, to get more loot, more women. I don’t like speaking about Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to that women became equal only closer to the mid of 20th century. However this kind of discrimination wasn’t as uncivilized as some others. For example, slavery has been existing for 5000 years. Despite the fact that the last ban on the ownership of slaves und use of slave labour was adopted in Mauritania[1] in 1981, according to the UN data profit of resale of indentured people fluctuate near $ 7 mln per year. Slavery is existing not only where it has been lifted recently and where the government is unable to exercise sufficient control over the execution of the legislation, but also in the countries where slavery was forbidden many centuries ago. I do not know, what the situation would have been now, if in 1948 extremely important enactment wasn’t taken.
On the 10th December in 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[2], which recognizes and approves the provision of "natural" rights as the main goal not only for the United Nations, but also for any state adopted it. These 30 articles are a real victory for whole humanity above inequality, injustice and exclusion.
Adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights complemented and explained the articles of the Declaration of Human Rights. These three acts became a base for a system of modern international law.
The main goal of my research is to compare the International Bill of Human Rights and the fundamental conventions and agreements of the Commonwealth of Independent States. CIS[3] was founded in 1991. It was formed from the states, that are former parts of the Soviet Union. CIS was organized for cooperation in political, economic, environmental, humanitarian, cultural and other fields.
Basic documents, protecting human rights, are being accepted throughout eighteen years of its existence. It’s important that each member of the Commonwealth feels how responsible they ought to be in the process of drafting legislation.
The starting point and the main question of my research is: how the Declaration of Human Rights has influenced the legislation of the CIS. The effect is evident, so the research is highly actual.
Of course, the legislation of the CIS regulates a broader range of issues associated primarily with the making the unified economic space more effective. Firstly, the Commonwealth was organized as a hope, to preserve old relations unchanged in the new reality. In spite of existence of the constitutions in each of the republics, the main document - CIS convention - establishes the rights of man as the highest value. I think this is a significant fact that needs to be discussed on.
As sources for the research, I would like to use the following literature.
- Book of DurhamLawSchool’s Professor Helen Fenwick “Civil liberties and human rights”
- “Globalizing democracy and human rights” is a book of American journalist Carol Gould
- “The Philosophy of Human Rights. Articles” by WinstonM.E
- “The international law of human rights and states of exception” by Svensson-McCarthy, A.-L.
- “EU competition enforcement and human rights” by Andreangeli, A.
- “Human rights and foreign aid” by Barratt, B.
I hope that my research will be interesting not only for me but for others as well as very useful for those who know about human rights is not as much as we would like.
[1]
[2]The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [Electronic Resources]// (
[3][Electronic Resources]//