ABSTRACT

In 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlined what he called the Four Freedoms upon which government policies should be based. One of them was the freedom of religion, and another was freedom of speech. This comprehensive view of human rights, security and governance is just as relevant as it was all those years ago, as free speech and religious freedom are under assault, the extremes of wealth and poverty are widening and warfare and violence are increasingly normalised. The United Nations (UN) became the only organisation that would include every nation in its deliberations on peace, security, human rights and development. The UN built upon the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by establishing and strengthening institutions like the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Criminal Court and the Human Rights Council. However, after the attacks against the United States in 2001, these many gains in the field of human rights were eroded.