Современная концепция прав и свобод человека и её трактовка всеобщей декларацией прав человека 1948 г.

Abstract

The article "Modern Concept of Human Rights and Freedoms and its Treatment in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948" reveals the contents of modern concept of human rights in the treatment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The article shows that the process of formation of human right has taken a long way, closely connected with the history of human society development. It was formed under the influence of two factors: philosophical ideas and their legal regulation. Although these processes did not coincide in time, they permanently interacted. In the conditions of slaveholder and feudal societies with their class hierachy structure, the progressive ideal of the ancient philosophers did not get the appropriate reflection in legislation which viewed human rights only as a privilege of the ruling class. Radical changes took place in the period of bourgeois revolutions when the ideas of philosophers representing the Enlightenment epoch of the XVI—XVIII centuries contributed to the formation of natural legal concept of human rights and were codified in English, American and French constitutional legislation. A special place can be given to the French Declaration of Human Rights of 1789 where the content of human rights was revealed for the first time and also the role of the State in fixing the status of individual in civic society was defined, as well as the value of personal identity was underlined. The principles of the organization of state power were very similar to those of modern legal state. This is the reason for the relevance of the French Declaration provisions today and this is what permits to consider it as the basis for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The article stresses that the Soviet Union was the author of legal codification and treatment of social economic laws, although one can not dispute the priority of Western European countries and the USA in the formation of the general concept of human rights and its legal regulations. Thus, the formed concept of human rights and freedoms fixed in the legislation of the most developed states of that time was already present before the beginning of the Universal Declaration development. The issue concerning the necessity of the elaboration of the Declaration of Human Rights was raised by the US during the development of the Charter. The reasons which changed the necessity of the development of the human rights protection mechanism were later formulated in the Preamble of the Declaration and were focused on the following: ignoring and violation of human dignity led to the barbaric acts in World War II; it is necessary to have the whole complex of both civic and political measures for the normal activities of every individual; codification of the rights and freedoms in a single document creates the conditions for the education in the sphere of human rights thus contributing to their respect and adoption of measures for their implementation on the national and international scale. The development of the Universal Declaration either within the framework of the Commission on Human Rights or the Third Committee of the UN due to their representing the States, belonging to various geographical regions and political systems has contributed to summarizing of different doctrinal approaches, ideologies and national legislation and caused continuous discussions on every article of the Declaration draft. The controversy concerned the nature and content of human rights and were caused not only by ideological contradictions but also by cultural discrepancies and different religious systems. However, as a result of the three-month work of the Third Committee the UN General Assembly managed to agree on the content of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its adoption (with only 8 abstaining) can be characterized as an outstanding example of cooperation of the States what concerns such complicated problem as human rights. The article analyzes in detail the concept of human rights and freedoms codified in the Declaration which consists of the following components: fundamental human rights principles, classification of rights and freedoms, human rights and society and the correlation of both state and human rights.The exploration of the Universal Declaration content resulted in the conclusion about its historical continuity in regard to the French Declaration of Human Rights. However, adopted in the new conditions of postwar world development, it has contributed a range of innovative aspects concerning both content and concept. The Declaration underlined universal and non-discriminatory nature of human rights and freedoms having prohibited all exceptions in their awarding and extending them to every individual irrespective of her/his residence territory status. Thus, the peoples of the colonies and other dependent territories were proclaimed to be the subjects of basic rights and freedoms for the first time. The declaration also for the first time has codified at the international level social, economic and cultural rights showing their interrelation with civic and political rights, and the necessity for ensuring human dignity. The article devotes attention to the exploration of the modern evolution of the human rights concept. It goes in the following directions: 1) interpretation of the principles concerning human rights in the OSCE documents; 2) more detailed and specific overview of fundamental human rights and freedoms in the universal and regional international treaties on human rights and their regulations concerning certain social groups; 3) development of international human rights protection institute. The article concludes that the evolution of human rights concept is no evidence of radical changes in the content of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It only shows the specification and detailisation of its provisions.