“Recognising the changes that new technologies, scientific development and the process of Mondialisation have brought about, and aware of the need to address their impact upon and potential consequences for human rights and fundamental freedoms“, states in its Preamble.
The drafting of the declaration has been the result of the committed and disinterested work of a group of experts integrated by Nobel laureates - Joseph Rotblat, Wole Soyinka and Dario Fo -, scientists, artists and philosophers representing all the regions of the world –among them, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Richard Falk, Ruud Lubbers, Lord Frank Judd, Sergey Kapitsa, Jakob von Uexküll, Fernando Savater-, and the judicious chairmanship of Richard Goldstone from South Africa.
There must be a duty on all relevant authorities and individuals to enforce those rights.” With a convergent perspective, Norberto Bobbio has entirely supported the initiative and the text of the DHDR, in particular taking into account the main concern for humanity of reinforcing the international systems.
The bearers are the members of the global community that have collective, as well as individual duties and responsibilities, to promote universal observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
DHDR Article 3 is dedicated to the duty and responsibility to protect the life of every member of the human family and ensure the survival of both present and future generations.
In a broader sense, the Earth Charter, a declaration of principles for a sustainable world, emphasises the urgency of sharing responsibility for caring for the community of life, including the well-being of the human family.
The responsibility of States, according to UN Chapter 7, is underlined and also their duty strengthening mediation, conflict prevention, and post-conflict peace-building mechanisms and peace-keeping capacities.
Primarily the States are in charge of reducing military expenditure in favour of human development, and together with no-States actors to carry our nuclear disarmament, to cease any production or use of all chemical and biological weapons, and use of landmines.
For defining gross human rights violations and the need of prevention and punishment this chapter has been inspired by the Rome Statute that was adopted some months before this Declaration was finalised.
This article is similar to the Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases emissions worldwide, an urgent change of attitude towards the environment.
DHDR Article 10 emphasises the duty and responsibility to promote an equitable international order for the universal enjoyment of sustainable human, economic, social, cultural, political, scientific and technological development and equitable participation in the decision-making processes for an interdependent and technologically well equipped world, providing an extensive vision of the general formulation of the UDHR Article 28: “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized”.
The UNESCO spirit of encouraging universally intellectual and moral solidarity is emphasised, in particular taking into account the condition of the lesser scientifically advanced States.
DHDR Article 14 enunciates the duty and responsibility to prevent and punish international and organised crime as a shared task of the members of the global community.
Following the content of the UDHR Article 16 on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, DHDR Article 17 reformulates the duty and responsibility to respect and ensure freedom of opinion, expression, and the media, providing concrete measures for the world today, affirming the pursuit of truth as unhindered, and condemning any degrading treatment of individuals and the presentation of violence as entertainment.
And Article 17 also insists that "the media and journalists have a duty to report honestly and accurately to avoid incitement of racial, ethnic or religious violence or hatred.
DHDR Article 19 enunciates the duty and responsibility to take all necessary steps to ensure the substantive realisation of the rights to free assembly and freedom of association.
This enunciation specifies the duty for achieving the content of UDHR Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
DHDR Article 25: The duty and responsibility to condemn and to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances declaring criminal and punishing all acts of forced disappearances, ensuring that persons deprived of their liberty are only held in officially recognised places of detention, and that they have adequate access to judicial officers, legal representation, medical personnel and family members during the course of their detention.
After trying to meet the major global challenges of our interdependent world that are affecting today humankind as a whole, DHDR Chapter 7 rethinks the principle of equality, such as stated in the first UDHR articles.
DHDR Article 26 enunciates in general the duty to respect, ensure and promote the right to equal treatment and to eradicate discrimination in all its forms.
Both the global community and the States are considered by this Declaration as the major responsible parties, collectively and individually for ensuring the rights of these vulnerable groups.
The DHDR reiterates the shared responsibility for eradicating extreme poverty from the world, in particular if we consider the sufficiency of material resources for meeting this challenge.
DHDR Article 38 emphasises the duty and responsibility to foster arts and culture by the States and the global community in general, similar to the UNESCO statements.