Article 30 – No abuse of rights

What does this right mean?

Article 30 is meant to protect everyone from the destruction of human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). At the same time, we are also not allowed to use the freedoms in the UDHR to destroy the rights of others. An example of this is that you are not allowed to abuse freedom of expression to endanger someone else's right to life, such as by calling directly for violence. So Article 30 protects against the abuse of laws, by people, groups and states. It also shows that all human rights are interconnected.

A people submitting to tyrants will lose more than body and property, the light will extinguish.

What is the history of this right?

Exactly in the Second World War, rights, such as freedom of expression and suffrage, were abused by fascist and Nazi regimes to destroy other freedoms. Article 30 was seen as a shield against the totalitarian ideas and tyranny which had caused so much injustice in the Second World War.

Some states proposed to add the word ‘group’ to the article to ensure that groups and organisations would also not be able to abuse the Universal Declaration to destroy the rights and freedoms of others. That proposal was accepted. The Second World War had shown that not only states and individuals, but also often groups and organisations had destroyed the rights of others.

Article 30 was eventually included unanimously. Together with Articles 28 and 29, this article makes up the final part of the Universal Declaration. These three articles connect all rights.

Where and how is this right documented?

Various international treaties on human rights have articles originating from Article 30 of the UDHR: Article 5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 5 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights use somewhat different words, but have the same meaning.

The protection from abuse or too far-reaching limitations of human rights is also documented in various treaties within Europe, such as in Article 17 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 53 of the ECHR emphasises that the articles of the ECHR are not to be interpreted in such a way that they infringe on human rights from other laws or treaties. With this, the connection of all human rights is emphasised.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union has such a stipulation too. Article 53 states that the provisions of the Charter are not to be interpreted in such a way that they limit human rights in European or international law. This article also specifically refers to the ECHR.

How topical is this human right?

A topical situation is that during COVID-19, the government had to take freedom-limiting measures to protect public health. This pits the right to freedom of movement against the right to life. This is one of the very many social issues in which various human rights are at play which need to be balanced with each other. In the process, it has to be ensured that they limit each other as little as possible. That is the core of Article 30 of the UDHR. Every time a person, a group of people or a state wants to invoke a human right or wants to protect it, it has to be looked into whether or not this would limit other human rights too much.

This is because the idea is that one human right is not above another one. They are all equally important, and they are also strongly connected to each other. This is why they can often not be carried out separately from each other. You can hardly express your opinion on an empty stomach and without the right to protest, you cannot speak out against homelessness, problems in healthcare, or discrimination.

One right often has to be limited to protect another one. A good and honest assessment has to be made then, without abusing or destroying someone's rights. Exactly that makes Article 30 of the UDHR topical.