Editorial: The Proposed United Nations Declaration on Religious Liberty

Abstract

]VIore than three decades ago, on 10 December 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Of the fifty-eight nations then members of the United Nations, forty eight voted their approval, none voted against, eight abstained (including the Soviet Union), and two were absent. For the first time, nation-states throughout the world, without a single dissent ing vote, committed themselves by means of a constitutional docu ment of the world community to human rights provisions as binding upon nations with the force of positive international law. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, it was agreed that every human right in the Declaration would he the basis for a separate declaration and, eventually, a separate convention or treaty. In 1959, the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Dis crimination and Protection of Minorities, under the direction of Arcot Krishnaswami, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, drafted a document for a proposed code on religious (the complete text was published in JCS 2 [May 1960]:61-64). However, no specific declaration or conven tion on religious liberty was adopted in the intervening years. Now, after twenty years of negotiations, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in March 1981 completed a Draft Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimina tion Based on Religion or Belief. Subsequently approved by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Declaration is to be submitted to the General Assembly in the fall of 1981 for possible adoption. Since the document is a declaration and not a treaty or convention, it will not need to be signed by member states, but will become effective when adopted by a majority vote of the General Assembly.