Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) guarantees the right to property. This is yet another right included in reaction to the atrocities of the Holocaust, when property was confiscated from Jews and others, often to enrich Nazi officials. European Jews were stripped of billions of dollars’ worth of cash, artwork, houses, businesses and personal belongings. “Hitler’s Final Solution was not only an act of genocide: it was also a campaign of organized theft,” says one writer.
Most of the 30 Articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) begin with gender-free language: “Everyone,” “All” or “No One. But Article 16 states that “men and women” have the right to marry, with the women drafters of the UDHR succeeding in their determination that it should spell out clearly that women had equal rights in marriage, given there was still very widespread discrimination in matters relating to marriage at the time.
Since the UDHR was adopted 70 years ago, there has been an increasing recognition of the issue of statelessness. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to solve it, and prevent it from occurring in the first place, with the UN Secretary General submitting an annual report on the deprivation of nationality to the General assembly.
