The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) came to life on December 10, 1948, as a result of the adoption of Resolution 217 A (III) by the United Nations General Assembly. December 8, 2008, marked the 60th anniversary of this landmark event in the history of mankind. Celebrations took place under the theme “Dignity and Justice for All of Us”.
As we know today, this Declaration has inspired a number of other declarations and international treaties pertaining to human rights, as well as regional conventions, national pieces of legislation, and constitutional provisions relative to human rights.
Canada played a decisive role in the process leading to the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Indeed, John P. Humphrey, then the Founding Director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights, was an active and influential member of the UDHR Drafting Committee, which was chaired by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. Mr. Humphrey, whom I had the honour of meeting a few times in the late sixties, remained active in that field well beyond the period leading to the ratification of the Declaration. He stayed on as Director of the Division of Human Rights until 1966. He went back to teaching law and political sciences from 1966 to 1982 at McGill, Toronto, and Western Universities. He was born in 1905 and passed on in 1996.
The ratification of the UDHR in 1948 marked the first time that fundamental rights and freedoms were recognized universally as inherent to all human beings, inalienable, applying equally to all, along with the acknowledgement that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Quebec and Canada subsequently confirmed those same rights by respectively enacting their Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (Quebec) and the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. The 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is now behind us, but we must not forget that documents such as these have also been used to shield abuses of power, the perpetration of atrocities, the reign of the arbitrary, and dictatorships.
2009 marks yet another anniversary, not all that different from the first: the 50th anniversary of the Parole Act and, as a closer look reveals, the 110th anniversary of the very first Act to provide for the Conditional Liberation of Convicts, adopted in 1899. This event may not be as significant for the history of mankind as was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it was nonetheless extremely important and significant for the Criminal Justice System in Canada.
Let us recall that the adoption of this legislation and the ensuing establishment of the National Parole Board followed a multi-year debate around the need to reform the sentencing process, as well as our correctional system. Two Royal Commission reports were necessary, Archambault (1938) and Fauteux (1956), for certain principles to be acknowledged, notably rehabilitation as a fundamental process leading to conditional release.
A number of things have evolved since 1959, including a growing recognition of the human rights of offenders as well as those of victims. The influence of fundamental documents such as the UDHR and the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms has been felt throughout those 50 years.
It is important to acknowledge and celebrate events as significant and fundamental as the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Parole Act.
In a world where insecurity and fear contribute to a climate that threatens many of the benefits derived from these two pieces of legislation, it is crucial to seize the opportunity created by these anniversaries to reflect on the debates and the events that led to the adoption of these documents, so that we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
