Are Human Rights Really Universal?

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Human rights may aspire to be universal - they should belong to everyone, everywhere - but there has been resistance to them on philosophical or theological grounds by powerful states and world religions. Lawyer Helena Kennedy looks at these issues and the rise of the human rights movement since 1948.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:04.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use, go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts. I'm Helena Kennedy, human rights lawyer, and you're listening to BBC World Service.
0:20.0	Greenwich Village, New York, 29 Washington Square West, at the corner of Waverly.
0:29.2	This was the city home of Elner Roosevelt at the end of the Second World War. It's classic New York style and a awning
0:36.0	over the portal, a doorman out front. This is where in 1947, Elner Roosevelt,
0:41.9	along with the jurist Renicessan from France, the philosopher Charles
0:45.1	Malik from Lebanon, Mrs. Hansa Maita, a social activist from India, a Confucian,
0:50.5	P.C. Chang from China, the Soviet Alexi Pavlov, and other scholars and lawyers from around the world
0:57.0	debated and argued into existence a document that became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1:05.1	This was to be in effect a bill of rights for the human race, universal political rights,
1:10.0	civil rights, social and economic rights, with a worldwide jurisdiction.
1:15.3	In Eleanor Roosevelt's words, a Magna Carta for mankind. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights. They are endowed
1:31.0	in reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
1:37.0	Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
1:43.2	Everyone is a member of society has the right to social security and is entitled to
1:49.4	realization.
1:50.4	Universalism, that they belong to everyone, everywhere, is the idea that grands human rights.
1:57.0	No one shall be held in slavery.
2:00.0	It gives them meaning, application.
2:02.0	No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest.
2:05.6	Detention.
2:06.5	And it's the key to their authority,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.