Introduction: The Declaration, adopted by the Organization of American States in 1948, enumerates the basic human rights referred to in the charter of the Organization of American States. The Declaration proclaims a list of human rights and duties, addressing civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

(Adopted by the Ninth International Conference of American States, Bogotá, Colombia, 1948)

WHEREAS:

The American peoples have acknowledged the dignity of the individual, and their national constitutions recognize that juridical and political institutions, which regulate life in human society, have as their principal aim the protection of the essential rights of man and the creation of circumstances that will permit him to achieve spiritual and material progress and attain happiness;

The American States have on repeated occasions recognized that the essential rights of man are not derived from...