ETHNICITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: AN ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVE

Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human rights adopted by the United Nations in December, 1948, holds: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Article II stipulates that everyone is entitled to the rights set forth in the Declaration “without distinction of any kind,” including race, colour, sex, language. In the view of many American ethnic people the question of human rights and ethnicity has been and still is one of the most neglected aspects of the revival of ethnicity as a factor in American life. In fact, in some ethnic circles there is concern that the issue of human rights is overly abstract and international, and that ethnic groups need to concentrate on American issues.