Article 29 – Duties and limitations

What does this right mean?

Article 29 is, just like Articles 28 and 30, kind of a how-to-read for the Universal Declaration as a whole. How should we see all other rights in the context of modern society? The first part of the article does not bring about any rights, like the other articles do, but states everyone has duties regarding the community. So, humans are not just seen as isolated individuals here, but also as parts of a social group, of a bigger community.

The second part of the article determines that (most) human rights are not absolute and may therefore be limited by the state in certain cases. But a state may only do this if such a possibility is documented in a law, and it may only happen for legitimate reasons. For instance, think along the line of how freedom of expression can be restricted if someone calls for violence. Stopping someone can then be required to protect others.

This also connects with the third part of the article: someone may not invoke human rights in order to do something which goes against the goals of the United Nations, such as peace and security, and human development.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

What is the history of this right?

What is also interesting about this article is what is not in it. During the drafting of the Universal Declaration, especially the communist states wanted to include the essential role of the state in the protection and application of human rights in this article. These states distrusted individual rights and freedoms, and believed these could not be seen as separate from individual duties citizens have to the state.

Such an explicit reference of duties to the state was rejected by most of the other countries. This was because they believed human rights should be separate from the state. After all, the Universal Declaration was a reaction to the Second World War, in which especially the Nazistic and fascist states were responsible for blatant violations of human rights. This is why ultimately no individual duties to the state were put in the Declaration. This article can be seen as a general, moral duty to humanity.

Where and how is this right documented?

Article 29 is quite unique as an umbrella article in the Universal Declaration. This is why it can often not be found literally in global, European or national laws and treaties. Still, there are various places where provisions on citizenship and individual duties to the community can be found.

In most human rights treaties, there is little about duties. In the European Convention on Human Rights, only the article on freedom of expression states that it also comes with duties and responsibilities. And Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (1957) only features the following general statement: ‘Citizens of the Union shall enjoy the rights and be subject to the duties provided for in the Treaties.’

In the Constitution of the Netherlands from 1798 [in Dutch], a similar provision was included. This was because Article 7, entitled ‘good citizenship’, also included a reference to the duties to society everyone would have. In it, a good citizen is defined as someone who ‘carries out the domestic duties (...) meticulously, and furthermore meets his social relations in all aspects.’ This is no longer stated in the current version of the Constitution. But the Constitution does state for many rights that these can be limited by the state, comparable to the second part of Article 29 of the Universal Declaration.

How topical is this human right?

The answer to the question which duties we have to the rest of society varies from person to person. One might have the opinion they do not owe much to the rest of society, as long as they do not break any laws. And someone else just might believe they should do something in return for the people around him. For instance, there are countless volunteer organisations at a local level, in a city like Utrecht, which provide help to people in the city who could use a little additional help. Such as volunteers who organise weekly language classes for Ukrainians who fled their country. This way, they do their part to let them be a part of the new city they found themselves in.

Social conscription?

In politics too, there are ideas to add more substance to the duties to the community. For instance, there is the regularly returning discussion to make a social conscription (in Dutch: ‘maatschappelijke diensttijd’, abbreviated asMDT) mandatory in the Netherlands. In a modern version of (military) conscription, each Dutch citizen who turns 18 years old would be required to do volunteer work for a period of time. One of the ways in which this could be done is by working with the elderly in a nursing home. Proponents believe social conscription can make youngsters more aware of their roles in society.