TO THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

INTRODUCTION. The year of 2018 marks with a global celebration of 70th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the landmark international document which represents the universal recognition that basic rights and fundamental freedoms are inherent to all human beings which is solemnly proclaimed by the UN member states. The most debatable and ambiguous issue is the determination of the legal status of this essential document. Given the fact that the Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in a form of the resolution, it has a recommendatory character. However, the Declaration which adopted as “standard to which all nations and states should strive to achieve” has undergone a certain legal transformation related to the constant development and refinement in the process of concluding a rich body of legally binding international human rights treaties that affected both domestic and international law. In this regard, the statements on the necessity of recognition of the certain provisions of the Declaration as norms of the international customary law are timely and fully justified. The article analyzes national judicial practice of sovereign states and the International Court of Justice in order to identify the possibility of such recognition. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on a considerable amount of materials, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, working materials of the UN Commission on Human Rights, statements made during General Assembly meeting (documented as verbatim records) on adoption of the Declaration, decisions and advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice, as well as the doctrinal positions of different authors. The methodological basis of the research comprises the general scientific methods (the dialectical, historical, statistical methods, methods of generalization and system analysis) and special methods of cognition (comparative legal and formal legal methods, methods of interpretation of legal norms). RESEARCH RESULTS. In the basis of the study of the international legal acts and international judicial practice, national legislation and judicial practice of concrete states, as well as doctrinal positions of scientists, the author makes conclusions on the legal status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In the article the author gives a historical reference on the diplomatic contestation in the period of the adoption of the Declaration which subsequently affected the final text of the document. Taking into account the moral significance, as well as weighty contribution of the Declaration to the adoption of international and regional human rights treaties, national legislation and judicial practice, the author comes to the conclusion that the certain provisions of the Declaration should be recognized as norms of the international customary law. The author also concludes that in modern conditions, when a number of states are still not a party to the main international human rights treaties, the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should act for them as binding norms of international customary law that are formed as a result of international practice of states and are gradually recognized by them as a legal norm. This conclusion is also formed on the basis of the practice of the International Court of Justice, the decisions and advisory opinions of which are analyzed by the author in this article.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international law, international customary law, human rights, International pacts on human rights, International Bill on human rights, International Court of Justice

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