Reaction #8: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights arose from the actions of the Second World War. This document is the first to recognize all of the rights humans have from birth. The approval of the Declaration came on December 10, 1948; with 48 voting in favor and 8 abstaining from the vote. Broken up into two covenants, the United States approved the first in 1992 and has yet to approve the second covenant.
The many principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights conflicted with many US policies and practices. First of which is the known fact of slavery. In many documents, the US has allowed the ownership of and enslavement of other people by people. This conflicted completely with the Declaration because the Declaration refers to all people, no matter their origin. Also, the Declaration allowed for the ownership of property, but within the US it was very hard for minorities to be allowed this right. The lack of equality within the US borders created many of these problems with the Declaration.
Another conflict with the Declaration was the inclusion of women. Women had very little rights still when this was ratified, and it made some people very upset. The Declaration gives the right to equal pay for equal work, and for the protection of employment. Neither of these was seen in the US at the time the Declaration was drafted. Women were forced out of their jobs once the men came back from war, and women were never paid as much as a man for their work.