Four Freedoms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Essay Example

Four Freedoms and the UDHC According to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, there are four freedoms. One is freedom of expression and speech, which is a freedom that is, or should be, enjoyed by everybody in the world. The second freedom is the freedom for every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. The third freedom is freedom from want, which should be enjoyed by everybody in the world. The fourth freedom is freedom from fear, which would entail a reduction in armaments to such a point that nobody would be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor, anywhere in the world (State of Union Address, 1941). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHC)v is based upon these four freedoms, and this essay will examine which articles correspond to these four freedoms. This essay will also examine Barack Obama’s speech, which also corresponds to the four freedoms as well. Many of the articles correspond to the freedom from fear. This might be because the declarations of human rights are protection documents for people’s lives, so the the UDHC would be focused upon this. Many of the articles seem to deal with issues such as slavery, torture and other atrocities that might happen in a dictatorship or during wartime. For instance, Article 5 states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” This would definitely be aligned with the freedom from fear – if a person is subjected to some kind of torture, and this is known to the person, then this would definitely induce fear in this person. FDR might have meant freedom from fear in a broader sense, in that citizens need to be free from other country’s threatening their borders with war, but torture would be in line with this freedom as well. Further, another article that is aligned with the freedom from fear is Article 14 – and this article states that everybody has the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries if they are being persecuted. This, too, is based upon the freedom from fear, in that, if individuals are being persecuted, which often happens in countries where there is some kind of ethnic cleansing or the country is under siege from war. Therefore, they have a right, if they are living in fear, to seek asylum from another country where they wouldn’t be living in this fear. Another freedom is the freedom from want. This is somewhat associated with the previous freedom, the freedom from fear, in that want and fear often happen in the same conditions. There is an article that corresponds to this freedom, as well, and that is Article 17, which is the freedom to own property and also states that nobody shall arbitrarily deprive another person of this property. This corresponds to the freedom from want, in that, if a person owns property, then this is a measure of prosperity and wealth. This also means that the person is less likely to want – if the person does fall on hard times, then the owning of the property can sustain him or her. Owning property is not a guarantee against poverty, but it makes it less likely that poverty would happen to that particular individual. Another article which corresponds to this freedom is Article 23, which states that everybody has a right to work and free choice of employment, without discrimination and with favourable remuneration, which ensures that the person’s family has dignity and respect, as well as means of social protection. This is more related to the freedom from want, because, as with owning property, having a job would ensure some type of economic security. It might be minimal, as, in different countries, wages are known to be quite low, but, even if the pay is minimal, it still is better than nothing. And, no matter how minimal the wage is, the money would still go towards providing the basic necessities of the people of the country, and this would correspond from the freedom from want. Freedom of religion is another important freedom, and some of the articles address this freedom directly or indirectly. For instance, Article 18 actually does address this issue directly. This article bluntly states that everybody has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, which means that every individual has a right to be able to change his or her religion, and everybody has a right to manifest his religion or belief in his teaching, practice, worship and observance. This is article has a direct relation to the freedom of religion, which is one of the four freedoms enumerated by FDR in his State of the Union speech. Moreover, the second article, Article 2, mentions religion in the context of stating that everybody has a right to all the rights and freedoms which are in the UDHC, regardless of religion. This would mean, essentially, that individuals cannot be discriminated against because of the person’s religion. This would preclude, say, telling a person who is Muslim that he or she is not entitled to freedom of speech, and employment and all the other freedoms simply because he is a Muslim. Or a Jew. Or a Hindu. Etc. Therefore, this is another protection for religion – everybody can worship the god of his or her choice, without having to be discriminated for doing it. Finally, freedom of speech and assembly is one of the four freedoms. This is actually addressed in several different articles. One is Article 19, which directly addresses the freedom of speech. This article plainly says that everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and express, and this means that everybody has a right to hold an opinion without interference from others, and has the right to impart these opinions and information to others. Article 20 also addresses this right directly, stating that everybody has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. This would necessarily tie in with the freedom of speech, because, when people assemble, they are assembling to hear people speak. If a person did not have the freedom of assembly, then it would be difficult to get his or her words out to the public, therefore, without freedom of assembly there is not a freedom of speech. In Barack Obama’s Second Inaugural speech, there are many themes that touch upon these four freedoms, especially the freedom from want. This would probably be because Obama is a president who is very concerned about social justice, therefore it is important to him that people are without want in the United States. He talks about how a country cannot succeed if there is a few people at the top, while the rest of the people barely make it. He also talks about how, as a nation, we must protect our most vulnerable, which often means the poor, but also might mean children. Moreover, he also talks about freedom from fear in this speech – he addresses the end of war, and how the United States would remain the anchor for strong alliances around the globe. Conclusion The four freedoms that FDR talked about in his State of the Union speech are universal freedoms. Because of this, they form the cornerstone of the United Declaration of Human Rights, which applies to everybody around the globe. While it is undoubtedly true that many of the people in the world do not enjoy these freedoms, because they live under a tyrannical government or live in areas of war, they are still entitled to all of these freedoms. That is why these two documents are linked – the four freedoms text and the UDHC. They are both based upon the same concepts, that humans cannot have dignity unless they also have freedom. References Second Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama. January 21, 2013. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. April 10, 1948. State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt. “The Four Freedoms,” delivered 6 January 1941. Read More