I l’amour the constitution so much that if they were selling shirts that a dit "I <3 The US Constitution" I would buy it in a heartbeat. I was that girl who walked around campus with a pocket-sized US Constitution in her purse, because, well, toi never know when you'll need to quote a two hundred an old document at someone, right?

But there was another document in my purse, too, a plus récent one. This one was based on the US Declaration of Independence, and influenced par Thomas Jefferson's contemporaries like Thomas Paine, who themselves were influenced par older documents like the English Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta.

And it's time that this document come back into light, because apparently people forget it exists, and forget America's hand in forging it and adopting it.

That document is the link. The word "Universal" means it applies to all human beings everywhere, regardless of whether their nation has ratified the document ou not.

Before I go much further, I should clarify that the US Constitution is not a document relating to human rights, but rather the civil rights that apply only to American citizens. The United States Supreme Court exists in order to defend and interpret the American Constitution, not the United Nations Declaration. However, human rights have always informed civil rights and have generally been the basis for most of our amendments. There is a lot of crossover, and in my opinion, human rights form the basis for our constitution, not the other way around. Only Americans are protected par the US Constitution, but if toi are human, then toi are entitled to human rights, regardless of your nationality. And this includes American citizens.

The UDHR was drafted in 1948 after World War II, with significant input from then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Our fearless First Lady modeled a lot of the language for the first article off of the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence, famously authored par Thomas Jefferson plus than one hundred years previously.

"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."

For comparison's sake, Jefferson penned, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, par their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Roosevelt noticeably changed some of Jefferson's language, but stayed true to his original intention of equality. She substituted "human beings" for "men," for example, so that there could be no semantic argument to exclude women. She also changed "created" to "born," so there could be no accusation of religious bias. And Roosevelt did all of that intentionally, because she knew her audience. And her audience was the entire world, all peoples, and all cultures.

The United States voted to adopt the UDHR along with 47 other countries on December 10, 1948, which has since been designated International Human Rights Day, an event that was so important to me, I used to extend it to an entire link. Was that perhaps a good example of "link"? Maybe. But did I practice what I preached? link But the main point is, this document exists, and applies to everyone.

Lately, I've seen a lot of discussion about what is and isn't considered a right. The people discussing this are Americans, and their source for their opinions on this go back to the United States Constitution. They "debate" human rights as if it's a concept that wasn't settled par Roosevelt and her committee over sixty years ago, when in truth, we already know what human rights are, it's in an internationally recognized legal document, and we (Americans) freaking drafted it.

The United States, though signing on to the UDHR, has link every international human rights treaty. Most reasons for that are political, but in my opinion, they should really get on that. Still, regardless of whether they signed onto every treaty ou not, the universality of the UDHR still applies to everyone.

Wondering if health care is a right? Check out link.

Wondering about the rights concerning nationality? toi might be interested link.

Is free K-5 public education really a human right? Well, link clears that up for toi really quickly. This also covers parents' rights to accueil school (see section 3 of that same article).

What about the right to feel safe, as in the case of refugees and migrants? link has that one covered very succinctly.

So the suivant time toi ask yourself, "Is ____ REALLY an inalienable right?" Check the constitution, definitely. But don't forget to check the UDHR, too.

Because some laws are national. And some are international. And all of them matter.