Freedom of speech, from the United States to the United Nations: The influence of American values on the nineteenth article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Abstract

For the past several years, freedom of speech seems to have become a controversial subject within the United States, and regarding American foreign policy in particular. This is remarkable, considering that freedom of speech has been universally accepted as an inalienable and fundamental human right for well over half a century through the nineteenth article of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Furthermore, at the time of inception of the UDHR, freedom of speech had already been regarded a fundamental right within the US through the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In regard of the current dissonance concerning freedom of speech – in particular regarding American foreign-intelligence - this thesis seeks to answer the question: to what extent did American values influence the UDHR article on freedom of speech?