United Nations Charter Vs Declaration Of Human Rights

The United Nations Charter (UN Charter) and Declaration of Human Rights are similar in their ideals; yet, fall into conflict in how issues should be addressed. While the documents do have similar ideals it is important to note the documents were designed for two very different purposes; the UN Charter was designed to bring the United Nations (UN) into existence and the Declaration of Human Rights was designed to set up what rights everyone is entitled to. This fundamental difference between the two documents allows for conflicts, these conflicts then have major repercussions on the world. The UN Charter was created in 1945 in the wake of World War II. The charter was the founding treaty of an intergovernmental organization that sought to prevent …show more content…
One of these issues is whether or not the UN can go into a country and protect the rights of the people. The Declaration of Human Rights in Article 28 states that “everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.” While this action calls for immediate response and protection of humans even within a country, it is in direct violation of the UN Charter’s Chapter 1 Article 2 Provision 7 that “nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.” This conflict between the two documents can cause major issues to escalate beyond the UN’s control before a decision by the UN Security Council can be reached. The most glaring example of this is the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. The UN was in Rwanda when the conflict began between the Hutu and Tutsi; however, they were unable to intervene because of Chapter 1 Article 2 Provision 7 of their charter which allowed the situation in Rwanda to escalate to a genocide. There are other glaring conflicts between the two documents but the Declaration of Human …show more content…
The UN Charter was the founding treaty of an intergovernmental organization that sought to prevent World War III from happening. Conversely, the Declaration of Human Rights was written in order to spell out the exacts rights that everyone is entitled to as a human. Therefore the conflicts stem from the inherent difference between the two