The UNESCO Courier - Volume 2018, Issue 4, 2019

In 1947 and 1948, UNESCO conducted a worldwide survey of a diverse group of intellectuals, political leaders, theologians, social activists and other personalities to gather their opinions on the philosophical foundations of human rights. A survey that was not widely publicized at the time, but one that is surprisingly relevant today.

For UNESCO to conduct “a formal, public and international debate on the necessary principles underlying human dignity and civilization” so that “the force of logic, culture, doctrine and the possibility of fundamental agreement would secure the triumph of free minds over the adherents of autocracy and totalitarianism” was the best way forward, advocated Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) in his text, sent to UNESCO from Naples on 15 April 1947, with the title “The Rights of Man and the Present Historical Situation”.

“Any attempt by the United Nations to formulate a Declaration of Human Rights in individualist terms would quite inevitably fail,” wrote the British academic and politician, Harold J. Laski (1893-1950). According to him, to go beyond these individualistic terms, the state must intervene to ensure a certain number of social rights for its citizens. This is an excerpt from his text, sent to UNESCO from London in June 1947, under the title “Towards a Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.

The right to employment, to social security, to a minimum wage, to the freedom of assembly and association, to free access to employment. These are the essential elements to integrate into a charter of human rights, in order to imagine a new kind of society, according to the British economist, Maurice Dobb (1900-1976).

Analysing the gravest threats facing humanity, the British novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) recommended that a world Bill of Rights should include efforts to increase available resources to meet the needs of the world's population; limiting the power of those who, through their wealth or hierarchical position, effectively dominated the masses of ordinary, unprivileged men and women who constituted the majority. He elaborated on these suggestions in his article, originally titled “The Rights of Man and the Facts of the Human Situation”, which he sent to UNESCO in June 1947. Excerpts follow.

“The same is true of the right to information as of all other rights: its legitimate content must be defined in terms of real needs,” wrote the French philosopher René Maheu (1905-1975), adding: “Conditionally, of course, on the word 'needs' being understood to mean the needs of human development, and not of self-interest or passion.” This is an excerpt of his contribution to UNESCO’s survey on the philosophical foundations of human rights, which he submitted on 30 June 1947, under the title “Right to Information and to the Expression of Opinion”.

“Education for freedom does not mean, as it has frequently been thought to mean, a laissez-faire programme of content or of methods of instruction, but the intelligent recognition of responsibility and duty,” wrote the American educator Isaac L. Kandel (1881-1965), in his article “Education and Human Rights”, sent to UNESCO in 1947. Excerpts follow.

How can individual rights be reconciled while respecting the cultural sensibilities of different human groups? For the American anthropologist, Melville J. Herskovits (1895-1963), this is the main difficulty facing the formulation of a world declaration of human rights. He elaborates on this dilemma in this excerpt from the text with the title "Statement on Human Rights", which he sent to UNESCO in 1947.

Criticizing the Western emphasis on reason and science that marked the emergence of European human rights doctrines, the Indian political scientist S.V. Puntambekar was of the opinion that “we shall have to give up some of the superstitions of material science and limited reason, which make man too much this-worldly, and introduce higher spiritual aims and values for mankind.” He focused on the spiritual nature of human beings in his text, “The Hindu Concept of Human Rights”, sent to UNESCO in May 1947. Excerpts follow.

“The basic ethical concept of Chinese social political relations is the fulfilment of the duty to one’s neighbour, rather than the claiming of rights. The idea of mutual obligations is regarded as the fundamental teaching of Confucianism.” This is what the Chinese philosopher Lo Chung-Shu (1903-1985) wrote in his text, titled “Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition”, sent to UNESCO on 1 June 1947. An excerpt follows.

“It might be predicted that when colonial peoples set about drafting a Bill of Rights, their claims will tally generally with those of depressed and disabled groups everywhere, but will also show a special distribution of emphasis corresponding to the special character of colonial disabilities,” wrote the British anti-colonialist writer Leonard J. Barnes (1895-1977). An excerpt of his article, “The Rights of Dependent Peoples”, sent to UNESCO from London in June 1947, follows.

“The heathens could always deny the immortality of the soul, and yet the believers will not stop to see it as a certitude. Even if the pagans were right today, the power of faith the believers have would one day make the soul immortal,” wrote Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) in the text he sent to UNESCO from Los Angeles on 21 July 1947, under the title “The Rights of Man”. “The same will apply to human rights, if we do not cease to believe in their existence, even though they should remain unknown and ill-defined for a long time to come," he added. Excerpts follow.

The current debates that question the universality of the Declaration of Human Rights are bringing to the fore the initiatives that UNESCO has been taking since 1947, to encourage the discussion on diverse cultural horizons.

Haiti, 2015. In the streets of Port-au-Prince, a 20-year-old student is looking for work. Let’s call her Marie. A young man offers to help her. “He said I should accompany him to his home to pick up some documents. When we got there, he pulled out a gun. That’s when it happened,” she recounts. Marie was raped.

The right to education is often taken for granted – until it is taken away. An indispensable tool to protect the freedom and dignity of all migrants, education allows them to fully integrate into their new societies. This legitimate aspiration, however, faces obstacles on the ground.

Fifty million displaced children worldwide! This was the alarming figure released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on World Refugee Day, 20 June 2018. Faced with the trauma and interrupted education of these children who are victims, teachers find themselves ill-equipped to deal with these challenges – especially since many of them have little or no qualifications themselves. Now, several institutions in different countries are stepping up with initiatives to help teachers give their best.

The case of Moujahed Akil, a Syrian refugee in Turkey, highlights the fact that innovative mobile learning practices are best driven from within the communities to address real needs, sustain development, empower members and maximize impact.

“Mimetic analysis” is how Peruvian artist Fernando Bryce describes his work process. It involves using ink on paper, and meticulously copying by hand, texts and images taken from magazines, political pamphlets, posters and old newspapers. Using this technique, he has captured moments from recent history, like the Cuban revolution, the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, in his work. In 2015, our magazine was the source of inspiration for a series of drawings called The Book of Needs, to which a supplement of this issue of the Courier is dedicated. Let’s find out what it’s all about.

Iraqi novelist Inaam Kachachi describes the city she loves – Mosul the austere, Mosul the convivial, Mosul the contradictory, Mosul the wounded, bleeding to death. She tells us of her deep attachment to the ancient city of Nineveh, ravaged by history.

Several high-profile sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List can now be hired by the wealthy for a wedding or a private party. Does this trend risk tarnishing these places of great cultural value? “No,” says Alfredo Conti, Argentinian architect and heritage conservation specialist. According to him, it could even be a way to initiate a new section of the public into the cultural fold.