Declaration of Universal Natural Rights
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Declaration of Universal Natural Rights | |
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Created | 31st December 1937 to 13th December 1939 |
Ratified | 16th December 1939 |
Location | Kesselbourg City |
Purpose | Human rights |
The Declaration of Universal Natural Rights, or DUNR, was a joint declaration made by various states on the subject of natural rights, or human rights. It was a direct result of the horrors of the Great War, and was unprecedented, due to its universal scope, the breadth of its ambit, and the wide support it garnered. It is considered customary international law.
The text of the DUNR follows:
Preamble
Whereas all human beings are endowed with reason and conscience,
Whereas natural rights inhere in beings with reason and conscience,
Whereas it is necessary to declare natural rights in a document to be universally known,
As the representatives and governments of all people, the International Assembly declares:
Statute I
Everyone is equal in the rights they hold, and is entitled unconditionally to all rights detailed in this Declaration.
Statute II
Everyone has the right to the security and safety of their own person.
Statute III
Everyone has the right to freedom of belief, association and expression.
Statute IV
Everyone has the right to personal property.
Statute V
Everyone has the right to be equal before the law.
Statute VI
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and assembly.
Statute VII
Everyone has the right to living standards, or the opportunity to attain them.
Statute VIII
Everyone has the right to contact with other people or the community.
Statute IX
Everyone has the right to a legal nationality.
Statute X
Everyone has the right to remedies to violations of their natural rights.
Interpretation
The remarkable brevity of the document is because of the inability of the parties who wrote it to agree on more exact wording. To this end, it is open to a wide range of interpretations; for example, some argue that "living standards" in Statute VII includes sleep, while other countries consider sleep deprivation a legal method of torture under the DUNR. The document was written before the existence of the internet; increasingly, Statute VIII has been thought of as relating to the internet, demonstrating the document's wide interpretative range.