Justice @ Rhodes

It seems that the UDHR sets forth a reasonable description of human rights that can generally be agreed upon to benefit people. As humans we do feel that we have rights and we want them to go unviolated. Why then have we not done more to uphold this document? Countries, or the US at least, have done little to educate their citizens of the existence of the document or its importance. Without any kind of general understanding we cannot hope to have people as a whole live by and respect this declaration of rights. Some of these rights are already outlined in the unwritten cultural rules of society, but by adopting the UDHR as an authoritative document these rules would gain more power and people would feel more of an obligation to diligently follow them. For example, Article 4 states that there should be no slavery in any form. Many societies accept this as true. People believe that slavery violates the individual right to freedom and life. In reality, however, slavery still exists today. If the UDHR was given more authority and the countries that pledged to achieve it took it seriously, they would feel an obligation to end slavery everywhere. It would no longer be a personal believe in the injustice of the situation, it would be a worldwide obligation to take action against this injustice. It seems that the countries that pledged to uphold the document need to commit to their promise. They agreed that people were entitled to these rights so now they need to educate people of the importance of respecting them and protect those who are suffering from human rights violations. People would be better off if we all lived to achieve universal respect for human rights, so why are we not working harder towards this goal?