Serious misgivings as to the substance of the draft Declaration of Human Rights as it now stands were voiced here by Prof. Hersh Lauterpacht of Cambridge, international legal expert, and consultant to the American Jewish Committee at the Paris Peace Conference earlier this year.
Prof. Lauterpacht warned that early publication of the Declaration, as recently approved by a majority of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, in the form of a manifesto, would result in vitiating the effects of the document. He suggests that more is needed before the measure is released.
In its present form, he says, it is merely a declaration of principles without adequate enforcement provisions and, as such, provides oven fewer specific safeguards than the United Nations Charter, which it is intended to supplement. As it stands, he states, it is a “retrogression.”
He points out that a number of serious modifications are still required and that international legislation is required before the declaration can have full meaning. In addition, Prof. Lauterpacht asserts that specific, intricate problems of economic and social rights are involved as well as controversial problems concerning the rights of individuals in relation to governments.
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