INFLUENCE OF UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ON INDIAN

CONSTITUTION

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by United Nation
Organisation on 10th December, 1948 explains various Civil & Political Rights and Economic
and Social Rights. It had a great impact on the philosophy and ideology of the Constitution
framers, while the Constitution of India was in the making at that time. Many similar rights
were incorporated in our Constitution under the headings Fundamental Rights and Directive
Principles of the State Policy in Chapter III & IV respectively and these rights have a great
significance for the Indian people as they have enabled every citizen of India to live freely and
honourably. A human being gets full freedom to develop himself mentally and physically,
through the principles imbedded by freedom fighters lead by Mahatma Gandhi.

At the time of Declaration of the Human Rights, the General Assembly proclaimed that the
Universal Declaration was to be a common standard of achievement for all the people and all
the nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of the society, keeping the
declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for
these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure
their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the people of Member
states themselves and among themselves and among the people of territories under their
jurisdiction.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promulgated by the United Nations, to which India
was a party, proclaimed basic human rights, although it did not provide for any machinery for
its enforcement. The historical struggle for political freedom in India had made a declaration
of Fundamental Rights inevitable. In fact, the Indian Declaration at the Round Table
Conference had pressed for the enactment of Fundamental Rights in the Constitution which, it
was expected the British Parliament would pass. Also, World War II saw human behaviour at
its worst and what were considered as Natural Rights of people came to be fine tuned into
Human Rights. United Nations took upon itself the role of the crusader for Human Rights. As
the preamble of United Nations Charter declared it was determined “to reaffirm faith in
fundamental Human Rights, in the dignity and worth of human person, in equal rights of man
and women and of the Nations large and small”. Universal Declaration of Human Rights was
adopted in 1948 followed by Covenants on Political and Civil Rights and Social, Economic
and Cultural Rights in 1966.
India adopted its Republican Constitution in 1950 and included a special part on Fundamental
Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by the General
Assembly of the United Nations on the 10th of December 1948 is indeed one of the precious
events in the ongoing march of mankind in the direction of refining civilization. A standard
code of Human Rights for the entire homo sapiens race was made applicable to the whole globe
and it was what mankind had been striving over for centuries. Now what is understood is that
‘the premises for the Universal Declaration is that the entire mankind is treated as one member
of one human family; the rights are inalienable and are considered on the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace. Dignity of the human person is acclaimed and men and women
with equal rights are indeed to march ahead for the promotion of social progress and for the
better standards of life and environment of such freedom. The topic of human rights is of
universal concern and it cuts across all ideological, political and cultural boundaries. Respect
for human rights is one of the cardinal principles for an effective operation of Constitution,
Law and the Government of any country. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights is based on two assumptions namely,

The right to liberty and equality is man’s birth right and cannot be alienated, Because man is
rational and a moral being, he is different from other creations on earth and, therefore, is
entitled to certain rights and freedoms which other creators do not enjoy.

Here are the words of Prof. Upendra Baxi, who holds that ‘I take it as axiomatic that the historic
mission of the contemporary human rights is to give voice to human suffering to make it visible
and to ameliorate it. Laying down the very basis of the Human Rights, the commendable author
goes on to continue that ‘the ethics of human rights emerges as a tradition of critical morality
by which the positive morality of human rights practices themselves may be judged. Respect
towards the other as a co-equal human is a groundwork of an ethic of human rights, furnishing
universal valid norms for human conduct and the basic structure of a society.’ Every societal
culture encapsulates beliefs, sentiments, symbols that impart sense to the notion of being
human, no matter in how many different registers of inclusivity. These societal human rights
cultures relate to global cultures of human rights. They are shaped by the golden cultures and
in turn shape them.
Also, though they were added later by way of amendment, the fundamental duties enshrined in
the Constitution of India, contained in Part IV A, are in consonance with Article 29 (1) of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says, “everyone has duties to the community
in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible”. ‘We must reaffirm
faith in recognition of the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of all citizens as the foundation
of freedom, justice and peace in the world, which implies obligations and responsibilities.’
Human rights, thus, go hand in hand with responsibilities. It is very necessary that all citizens
should be made aware of the potential of Article 51A relating to fundamental duties as a means
to ensure the protection of human rights. Thus is an effortless task to establish that the Universal
Declaration is a pioneer documentation of Human Rights of the mankind at large, as
contemplated, adopted and accepted by the International Community. Hereby, the demand for
effective protection of Human Rights has also gained prominence by this Declaration.