nificantly, the term "human rights" has come into
general use only since the promulgation of the United Nations Charter in
1945 and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights three
years later. In these history-making documents, formal recognition has
been given to respect for social justice as a correlative of the
establishment of world peace. The fact that the Declaration passed without
a dissenting vote in the General Assembly conferred on it from the outset
an authority that has grown steadily in the intervening years.

The activity most intimately linked to the consciousness that
distinguishes human nature is the individual's exploration of reality for
himself or herself. The freedom to investigate the purpose of existence
and to develop the endowments of human nature that make it achievable
requires protection. Human beings must be free to know. That such freedom
is often abused and such abuse grossly encouraged by features of
contemporary society does not detract in any degree from the validity of
the impulse itself.

It is this distinguishing impulse of human consciousness that provides the
moral imperative for the enunciation of many of the rights enshrined in
the Universal Declaration and the related Covenants. Universal education,
freedom of movement, access to information, and the opportunity to
participate in political life are all aspects of its operation that
require explicit guarantee by the international community. The same is
true of freedom of thought and belief, including religious liberty, along
with the right to hold opinions and express these opinions appropriately.

Since the body of humankind is one and indivisible, each member of the
race is born into the world as a trust of the whole. This trusteeship
constitutes the moral foundation of most of the other rights--principally
economic and social--which the instruments of the United Nations are
attempting similarly to define. The security of the family and the home,
the ownership of property, and the right to privacy are all implied in
such a trusteeship. The obligations on the part of the community extend to
the provision of employment, mental and physical health care, social
security, fair wages, rest and recreation, and a host of other reasonable
expectations on the part of the individual members of society.

The principle of collective trusteeship creates also the right of every
person to expect that those cultural conditions