In 1955 then-president of the African National Congress, Chief Albert Luthuli, said, “People from all walks of life as equals, irrespective of race, color and creed, to formulate a Freedom Charter for all people in the country.” Unsurprisingly, anti-apartheid activists worldwide would draw on the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their fight. It sets the basic standards of individual rights and over the years has inspired several human rights legislations across the world, including the Freedom Charter in South Africa. It also addresses civil and political rights, including the right to life, liberty and privacy, in addition to economic, social and cultural rights.
The right to asylum, to freedom from torture, to free speech and to education are some of the 30 rights and freedoms contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would also inspire several liberation movements, including those that fought against apartheid in South Africa. The declaration’s proclamation of universal equality, freedom and justice strengthened the momentum toward self-determination in Africa and helped usher in an era of sovereign countries. Paradoxically, in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ most enthusiastic supporters, including Belgium, France, Great Britain, Portugal and Spain, still possessed colonies in Africa in which most natives were subjects rather than citizens. “Africans must be just as free as other citizens of the human family to enjoy the fundamental liberties set forth in this declaration and the rights proclaimed in the United Nations Charter,” he added. Lumumba said in 1959 at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a renowned center of intellectual ferment in colonial Africa.
“Let today give proof of the principle of equality and friendship between races that its sons have always taught us as we sat at our desks in school, a principle written in capital letters in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Mr. Nkrumah aptly invoked the principles of equality, freedom and justice for all-the same principles that the declaration enshrines.īefore the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, then Republic of the Congo) became independent in 1960, Patrice Émery Lumumba, a historical figure in the continent-wide independence movement, emphasized that self-determination in Africa was a basic human right, underscoring the relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the fight for independence.
Ghana, a former British colony, had just gained independence. On 6 March 1957, barely a decade after the adoption of the declaration, Ghana’s then–prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah, told a huge celebratory crowd at the Old Polo Grounds in the capital, Accra: “At long last, the battle has ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved country, is free, forever!” On 10 December 2018, the world marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Years later, the declaration would help transform African territories into independent states and inspire the continent’s own African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted on 21 October 1986, a document created to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms. South Africa did not sign, because of the declaration’s potential to disrupt its practice of racial discrimination and segregation, also known as apartheid, which lasted from 1948 until 1994. Only four African countries-Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa-were UN members, and three of them signed the declaration. It was the first time an internationally agreed-upon document unequivocally stated that all human beings are free and equal, irrespective of color, creed or religion.īut then, most of Africa was still under colonial rule. Sovereign African countries barely existed when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, three years after the end of World War II.