UN, UDHR, and Human Rights: A Look at the Historical Struggles.

This essay examines the establishment of the United Nations and the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the aftermath of World War II. It delves into the historical context, exploring the struggles for human rights and the question of their universality. The essay highlights the actions taken by the United Nations to promote international peace and security, including peacekeeping measures, preventive diplomacy, and counter-terrorism efforts. It also addresses the challenges and obstacles faced by the UN and UDHR in implementing universal human rights, such as wartime rape and conflicts arising from non-signatory countries. The essay concludes that while the journey has been challenging, the UN and UDHR have inspired policymakers and individuals worldwide towards a better future, continuing to strive for international peace and security.

Running head: HUMAN RIGHTS
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Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The organization agitated for the rights...........................................................................................2
Their actions to legitimate their claims...........................................................................................4
Fight for the rights...........................................................................................................................6
Challenges and the obstacles...........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
After the end of the World War II, the United Nations merged as the international
peacekeeping organization. It was the forum that aims to resolve all the conflicts among the
nations in the world (Conforti and Focarelli 2016). Replaced by the ineffective League of
Nations, United Nations aimed towards the security and the international peace unlike League of
Nations which resulted in the outbreak of the Second World War.
Established in the year October 24 in the year 1945 headquartered in the city of New
York , the organization emerged as the global leadership in the period of post war. The essay
highlights the emergence of the establishment of the international organization known as the
United Nations and also the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(Keesstra et al 2016.). The essay aims to explain the historical struggle for the human rights
targeting the query regrading the rights are universal or not. In the context of the historical
context post the World War II, the assignment presents arguments related to the actions by the
United Nations, the fights for the rights and the main moto of the UDHR and also the obstacles
faced during the implementation of the universal human rights.
The organization agitated for the rights
The World War II pitted Japan, Germany and Italy against Great Britain , the United
States and Soviet Union and engulfed the entire globe in the firestorm of destruction and death.
The horrors of the World War II reinforced the requirements and the demands for the
development and establishment of global bill of human rights (Na 2016). The intention was the
creation of the treaty were each and every state will recognize the rights of every individual on

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their territory regarding their life, religious belief, their liberty and the use of their own mother
language.
The Universal Declaration of the Human Rights (UDHR) is the international document
that includes the basic and the inalienable rights and the basic freedoms towards which all the
human rights are being entitled. This declaration was being adopted by the General Assembly of
the United Nations on the year 10 December, 1948 (Weiss 2016). Inspired and motivated by the
experience regarding the preceding world wards and the global conflicts , the Universal
Declaration was the documents that aimed to bind all the countries and the nations regarding the
comprehensive statement of the inalienable rights of each and every human.
The deceleration is not basically a treaty since it does not initiate in legal obligations for
the countries in the globe. The UDHR is the expression of the fundamental values that are
generally shared by all the members of the community in the internal basis. With the profound
influence over the development of the international human rights law, UDHR has become a
binding part of the customary international law.
On joining the delegation of the United Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt initiated the need and
responsibility of her and her fellow in the United Nations towards the recognition of the mutual
devotion to the land (Kismödi and Ferguson 2018). She felt that being the one world, it is
important for remember that injuring one is injuring all and it is responsibility of all the nations
in the world to build a lasting peace among the globe.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being designed for serving the foundations
for the protection of the future human rights. The organization and the treaty agitating for the

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rights of all the people living in the globe adopted the actions to brought the treaty to the life of
all the people by educational programs with the consciousness of the citizens over the world.
Their actions to legitimate their claims
The United Nations and UDHR came in actions much after the devastation of the Second
World War with one of the main aims regarding the maintenance of the security and the
international peace. The organization initiates their actions for legimating their claims of
international peace and security by working for the prevention of the conflicts, helping the
parties within the conflict to make peace, generate peacekeeping and create conditions for
allowing the peace to hold and flourish (Goodale 2017). These actions often tend to overlap and
reinforces one another for being effective. The security council of the organization has the
primary responsibility for the promotion of the international peace. The secretary general and the
general assembly of the organization also play a key essential role along with the bodies and the
offices of the United Nations.
The organization takes the lead towards the determination of the existence regarding the
threat to the peace or the acts regrading the aggression. It initiates actions by calling upon the
parties for settling the disputes by peaceful means and recommends some of the methods of the
adjustments regrading the term of the settlement. Actions includes economic sanctions to
international actions of the military (Marks 2016). The organization council furthermore
establishes the peacekeeping operations and the specialized political missions.
Some of the actions taken and initiated by the UN and the UDHR for the maintenance of the
international peace and security are as follows.

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Peace keeping measures – This has proven to be one of the most effective and key tool that is
available to the United Nations for assisting the host countries from navigating the strenuous and
the difficult path of the conflict to peace. In the current day, the peace keeping operation are
called upon not only for the maintenance of the security and the peace but also for the facilitation
of the political process, the protection of the civilians, the demobilization and the reintegration
for the support towards the constitutional process and the elections of the organization , the
promotion and the protection of the human rights for restoring the rule of law within the
authority of the state (Van Leeuwen 2018). In total there have been 14 of the peacekeeping
operations and actions that has been deployed and a total of 71 has been deployed since the year
1948.
Preventive mediation and diplomacy - One of the most effective ways for the diminish of the
sufferings of the humans and the huge economic costs of the conflicts is initiated by the United
Nation by prevention of the conflicts in the first place. The organization uses good offices,
diplomacy and mediation. Among the all other tools. The organization uses to initiate security
and peace for envoy of the political missions on the field.
Countering of terrorism – The organization increasingly called upon for the co-ordination of the
global fight against the terrorism. There has been eighteen of the universal instruments against
the international terrorism that have been elaborated within the framework of the system of the
United Nations that are related to the specific activities of the terrorist (Danieli, Stamatopoulou,
and Dias 2018). The organization adopted the global counter terrorism strategy for initiating
operations for the peace and the security by combating terrorism.

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Peacebuilding - The peacebuilding activities of the organization aims for assisting the countries
that are emerging from the conflict. The actions by the organization aims to reduce the risk
related to the relapsing in the conflict laying the foundation for the development and the
sustainable peace. The peacebuilding architecture of the organization comprises of the
peacebuilding commission, the peacebuilding fund and the support office (Brown 2016). The
organization gets supported by the strategic advice and the guidance of the policy for serving the
nation regarding their peacebuilding and peace maintaining efforts.
Disarmament – The organization including the general assembly and other included bodies of the
United Nations initiate their actions for the advanced international peace and the security through
the pursuit of the elimination of all the nuclear weapons and the other destructive weapons that
initiates in mass destructions and regulation of the conventional arms.
Fight for the rights
The founding charter of the UN included the term human rights for several times , thus
making the promotion and the protection of the human rights as the key aim and the guiding
principle of the organization. The UN and the treaty of the UDHR has been facing lots of
struggles and has initiated some of the major fights for the promotion and the protection of the
human rights.
The office of the UN High commissioner having the lead responsibility towards the
promotion and the protection of the human rights supports the components of the human rights
regrading the peace keeping mission in various if the countries. The human rights council that
has been established in the year 2006 replaced by the 60 year old UN commission as one of the
key independent intergovernmental body of the United Nation which was responsible for the

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human rights (Echo-Hawk 2016). The Human Rights Mainstreaming Mechanism ( UNDG-HRM
) advances towards the human rights mainstream efforts with the system of the UN development.
Further instances of the fights of the organization includes the initiative to raise awareness
regrading the causes and the dynamics related to the genocide for alerting the relevant actors for
advocating and mobilizing for the appropriate action. Some of the legal instruments that help the
UN and the UDHR towards fighting for the rights includes the international bill of Human
Rights and democracy. The context of the democracy is based over the rule of the law which
means towards the achievement of the international security and peace, the social and economic
development and progress together with the respect for the human rights (Shestack, Jerome
2017). The security council, various other bodies of the United Nation and peace operations of
the United Nations includes the human rights related mandates that aimed to contribute to the
fight regrading the rights and the protection and the promotion of the human rights through
action and upholding the rule of law.
Challenges and the obstacles
The United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have faced series of
challenges and obstacles for the promotion of the international peace and security. United nations
undertook more than 69 observer mission and the peacekeeping mission for fulfilling the aim to
restore calm and allowing the countries to recover from conflicts. Though still not all the
countries have enrolled and signed UDHR, the organization has been keeping up its
peacekeeping mission. While initiating the defusing of the potential conflicts, the mission by the
organization often faces failure leaving to the destruction of the marshal resources., the proposed
actions and more conflicts among the nations (Otto 2017). The strategies related to the counter
terrorism by the organization has been negotiated till now where the organization faced

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challenges and obstacles like aircraft hijacking, bombing by the terrorist, nuclear terrorism and
more. One of the major challenges that the organization faced while initiating the peace and the
security is the wartime rape during the era of the civil war. Thousands of women were being
raped and the sexual violence was being characterized as the conflicts from the countries who
refused to sign UDHR.
Conclusion
This it can be concluded from the above discussion and essay that the United Nations and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has inspired many of the policymakers and the
individuals around the word towards a better future. The journey of the organization and the
treaty of UDHR has never been smooth and the organization is still facing challenges towards
the fulfillment of their aim of the international peace and security. The United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights have faced series of challenges and obstacles for the
promotion of the international peace and security. The UN and the treaty of the UDHR has been
facing lots of struggles and has initiated some of the major fights for the promotion and the
protection of the human rights. The essay explained how Universal Declaration of Human Rights
was being designed for serving the foundations for the protection of the future human rights. The
essay presents arguments related to the actions by the United Nations, the fights for the rights
and the main moto of the UDHR and also the obstacles faced during the implementation of the
universal human rights.

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