美国国家公共电台 NPR Boundlessly Idealistic, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights Is Still Resisted

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Around the world today is Human Rights Day. It was on this December day in 1948 that member states of the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That declaration listed what people would be entitled to in a world of genuine peace and justice. But the document lacked the force of law, and on its 70th anniversary, it's not yet universally accepted. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE¹: Having just experienced two world wars, countries large and small wanted to believe that barbarism from then on could be made unthinkable. So they created the United Nations with a charter that reaffirmed faith in fundamental human rights. But the charter did not say what those rights were exactly, so a U.N. commission set out to make a list. For nearly two years, delegates debated. Finally, in December of 1948, the declaration was ready.

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CHARLES MALIK: Thus we state that you and I are born free and equal.

GJELTEN: Commission Secretary Charles Malik of Lebanon went through the rights one by one at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in Paris.

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MALIK: We declare the right of asylum² and the right of nationality.

GJELTEN: Thirty rights in all defining an ideal humankind had never achieved...

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MALIK: The right to social security, to a decent standard of living.

GJELTEN: ...By calling to end discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin, the declaration foreshadowed struggles yet to come. An article calling for equal pay for equal work was just one where the United States itself still falls short. The commission chair was Eleanor Roosevelt. In her presentation, she acknowledged the document could not be enforced but could be used to define principles.

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ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: And to serve as a common standard of achievement for all peoples of all nations.

GJELTEN: That was the controversial part, the idea that these rights should apply across cultures and religious traditions. Saudi Arabia was uncomfortable with an article endorsing³ one's right to change religions, a move some Muslim theologians see as unacceptable under Islam. To support the U.N. version of human rights in some Muslim countries, for many years, was to ask for trouble.

ASMA UDDIN: A common discourse⁴ I heard was that I was somehow, you know, like, an agent for Western colonialism I guess.

GJELTEN: Asma Uddin, herself a Muslim, advocates for human rights and religious freedom in places like Pakistan where non-Muslims can be criminally prosecuted⁵ for blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. She says scholars there have effectively argued that the understanding of human rights in Islam is generally consistent with Western notions even where blasphemy⁶ is concerned.

UDDIN: The work is as fundamental as just going back to the traditional Islamic texts that were cited in the blasphemy laws as support for punishments for blasphemy and saying, hey, if you go back to the text, it actually says something quite different.

GJELTEN: That's now the prevailing⁷ argument of those defending the Universal Declaration. Princeton professor Robert George is a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

ROBERT GEORGE: It is a defamation⁸ of Islam to suppose that it cannot embrace a concept of human dignity like we have in the declaration or that it must reject the core rights articulated in the text. And I would say the same is true of the great traditions of Buddhism⁹, of Hinduism and so forth¹⁰.

GJELTEN: Seventy years after its adoption¹¹, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may finally be getting the attention it warrants. Tom Gjelten, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

3 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网

4 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

5 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

6 blasphemy   

n.亵渎，渎神

参考例句：

• His writings were branded as obscene and a blasphemy against God.他的著作被定为淫秽作品，是对上帝的亵渎。
• You have just heard his blasphemy!你刚刚听到他那番亵渎上帝的话了！

7 prevailing   

adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的

参考例句：

• She wears a fashionable hair style prevailing in the city.她的发型是这个城市流行的款式。
• This reflects attitudes and values prevailing in society.这反映了社会上盛行的态度和价值观。

8 defamation   

n.诽谤；中伤

参考例句：

• Character defamation can be either oral or written.人格诽谤既可以是口头的也可以是书面的。
• The company sued for defamation.这个公司因受到诽谤而提起诉讼。

9 Buddhism   

n.佛教（教义）

参考例句：

• Buddhism was introduced into China about 67 AD.佛教是在公元67年左右传入中国的。
• Many people willingly converted to Buddhism.很多人情愿皈依佛教。

10 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

11 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。