Sounds Good

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

This article seems to beg that we talk about the status of Palestine or even Palestinian refugees. Even though I enjoy a healthy debate, I actually think I am going to sidestep that topic right now. Instead, I want to discuss the implications of this article as it relates to state sovereignty. As it stands, the United Nations respects sovereignty seemingly above all else. We can see this right now in Sudan, where the government is doing all it can to prevent or stall the United Nations peacekeeping force. As the government in Khartoum obstructs this effort, the UN has little recourse.

Article 2 says that all people are entitled to the protections laid out under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without distinction made on the basis of the status of the country or territory. So the people in the Darfur region of Sudan are surely entitled to those protections. But as long as Sudan is allowed to prevent UN peacekeeping efforts, the people of Darfur are not actually being protected by the UDHR. So arguably, they are not entitled to the protections because of their status as residents of Sudan.

When the world has the will, it can ignore sovereignty claims. NATO bombed Serbia to protect ethnic Albanians and the US protected the Kurds after the first Gulf War (granted that was after the genocide had happened). But we can't continue to rely on the whim of the US or NATO to protect people that the UN can't reach because they live in a country that won't let peacekeepers in. In order to follow the spirit of Article 2, state sovereignty needs to take a back seat to protecting the universal rights of all people.