Having read through the UDHR, and I swear I actually did, I find the very first article to be of utmost importance. It seems only fitting as it is the very first article, that it lay the complete ground work for all the rights to follow. After all, the greatest obstacle and thing that needs to be accepted first and foremost before anything else can be accomplished or acknowledged is that all humans are equal in worth and in rights. All forms of segregation and hierarchy need to be dismantled and not forgotten but moved passed so that mankind can truly understand “why” humans have the rights that follow; because we are all equal and of one team. The article declares that all people are free, something further iterated and expanded upon by many other articles to include articles 4, 5, 7, 9, and others. This, albeit very non-descriptive, is the rock solid foundation of human rights that goes right along with all people being equal. It’s a simple but extraordinarily important message that needs to be universally understood; all people are born inherently free from oppression and discrimination and are equals amongst each other. Their choices down the road may make them different people and create different values for them in different scenarios, such as qualifications and education, but in their rights they are all equal and all deserve freedom. However, another equally important but often forgotten lesson is the final part that all people should work together in brotherhood. That is to say that we are a people united who should always seek to help the less fortunate and assist others when they are down in hopes that they will do the same when we struggle, BUT it should not be forced upon the people. A governing body should never force the people to work together or require them to assist others, not because it would do harm but rather because it would take away from the first line that all people are free. Being free is being free to choose; which includes choosing wrong. And forced kindness is not kindness at all.

(Featured image): People who have had their freedoms and rights stripped away for a very long time are freed, standing beneath the lie “Arbeit macht Frei” (work makes free). “All human beings are born free and equal”

Are human rights used as an excuse by Western powers to intervene in smaller nations? Of course they are! Human rights, religion, beliefs, science, the list goes on; those in positions of great power will utilize anything that will persuade the masses to agree with them or at least keep them at bay. Rulers throughout medieval Europe used catholicism as an excuse to invade, conquer, or destroy other peoples because it made the masses think twice about second guessing them. The same exists to this day with human rights. Whether its exclusive to the Western world though is certainly up for debate. Does the U.S. move to occupy other nations under the pretense of restoring humanity? Yes, they do. Did the former Soviet Union invade satellite nations under the pretense of bringing about a better world and making peace? Without question, they did. This of course does not make the nation itself evil or abusive of the idea of human rights, but rather the corrupt and selfish leaders who try to twist their own devious plots to sound like the betterment of mankind.

With the influencing of weaker nations certainly comes the age old debate; capitalism vs. socialism. First, it must be understood that both of these lie on a spectrum; absolution of either is a horrid system that will ultimately fail. Capitalism being the idea that hard work pays off and nothing, not even a government, should stand in your way, when in its most aggressive state leads to massive class unbalance. The rich get more rich and the poor stay poor. Whereas socialism is the basic concept of teamwork getting everyone to the same state and yet when practiced in its most absolute form it leads to an authoritarian state where the people are oppressed and not taken care of. It takes the balance of these two; the picking and choosing of the good parts to create a solid system. As mentioned earlier, if an overly aggressive capitalist system begins to conquer the world than it will lead to the poor only staying excessively poor. They will not have access to basic needs such as food and shelter and will begin to give up any form of rights or basic human decency to acquire just the base necessities.