Most Americans, for instance, tend to equate human rights with only the Bill of Rights, or with mandates of such fine, but limited, organizations as Amnesty International who deal primarily with torture, the death penalty, and political imprisonment. But more importantly, perhaps, is the fact that once a country ratifies one of the Conventions mentioned above, it must report to United Nations human rights monitoring committees. The United States, sad to say, has ratified only three human rights conventions and submitted just one report to the monitoring committees. The U.S. Initial Report sad to say omitted that fact. Soon the United States will submit reports on the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on Racial Discrimination.
Social change is a slow and arduous process.
Only non-violent methods, as the Barrons at Runnymede amply demonstrated when King John signed the Magna Carta, a forerunner of the Universal Declaration, can advance the cause of human rights. Violations of basic human rights certainly affect the overall quality of life. Considering that pediatric admissions to hospitals tripled after the Persian Gulf War and that the U.S. is the world's largest arms supplier, surely, the implications of a human rights culture to peace are obvious. Such a culture would do much to assist in the ending of human suffering throughout the world. A compilation of international instruments .