Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a 1948 United Nations declaration on universal human rights. Contrary to popular belief, the declaration is not a treaty or part of international law.

Also contrary to popular belief, it does not declare, for example, that immigration to other countries is a human right and it states that the human rights can be restricted for vague and easily manipulated reasons, such as "the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society."

The existence of the declaration has not prevented, for example, Communist dictatorships conducting mass killings under Communist regimes from being members of the United Nations. Neither has it prevented officially non-democratic absolute monarchies, such as Saudi Arabia, from being members of the United Nations

Critics have included Islamists, seeing it as incompatible with sharia and Islamization of society.

A 2018 study found that human rights in a country was associated positively with average country IQ, but more important was religion, with human rights positively associated with percentage Christians, but negatively associated with percentage Muslims.

An early leftist criticism came from Boasian anthropology. See the article on the American Anthropological Association and in particular the section American Anthropological Association‎: Human rights.

See also

• Human rights
• Refugee Convention
• The Race Question
• All men are created equal