Elaborating on the importance of Article 6 of the Declaration of Human Rights.
In our second post in this Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) series, we discussed the core purpose of Articles 1 and 2 of the UDHR: the concept of personhood being a fundamental and inherent right to all individuals, regardless of any perceived differences between one human and another.
Specifically, we said: "The First Article immediately recognizes all humans with what Addressing Freedom understands as intrinsic personhood. Inherent to their existence, each individual's birthright is freedom and equality … It is impossible for any one human to be a "lesser person" than another... [The Second Article explains] By nature of a human existing, they are entitled to all rights and freedoms declared as human rights and freedoms in the UDHR. No conceived identifier or distinction can be made about a person which would diminish or take away any of their inherent human rights. "
Understanding this concept of intrinsic personhood is key to the strength and validity of the rights outlined throughout the rest of the UDHR.
This is evident in Article 6, which states:
Article 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
What does this statement mean?
The government's of all nations in the world must uphold everyone's right to be recognized and treated fairly and equally as a person. All individuals, regardless of any perceived differences between themselves and others, are equal in their personhood and subsequent inherent rights.
Any government would be in violation of human rights if they were to treat any individual as something other than equal to everyone else in the ways which their laws protect and respect.
While this is the ideal form of how governments enact their laws, respecting people's personhood is often deliberately denied through government enforcement of abuse,discrimination, and sometimes massacres of the people they don't want to acknowledge as equal. Sometimes the violation of recognizing equal personhood blatantly obvious, other times it is done secretly until corruption is revealed.
There are many examples in modern society of government violations of personhood based on an individual or groups perceived "otherness".
China's horrific use concentration camps to imprison, torture, and kill approximately 1 million of the religious minority of Uyghur and Turkish Muslims.
Russia's laws supporting the targeting of LGBTQ+ individuals in discriminatory, harmful, and violent acts.
Heavily Bhuddist country Myanmar's ethnic cleansing (genocide) of its minority Muslim Rohingya citizens
United States illegal abuse of Federal Department databases to discriminate against immigrant rights supporters, lawyers, and activists.
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All instances, no matter how great or small in impact, of treating individuals differently and unequally under the law are a governmental abuse of human rights. The Universal Declaration condemns such actions and behaviors and gives structure to how governments should behave in protecting all citizens equally and fairly.
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