PLATFORM : New Moral Compass

With so many powerful enemies, the poor could use a new friend. Social-welfare advocates would do well to turn to international human-rights doctrine when seeking weapons to defend against the conservative onslaught.

For example, Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--adopted in 1948 by the U.N. General Assembly without dissent--mandates the right to an adequate standard of living for all, including “food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services” and protection from loss of livelihood. It also proclaims that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”

Guided by this moral compass, our policy-makers should reject proposals to throw welfare mothers off AFDC into nonexistent jobs. America’s social problems are human-rights problems. We are failing to secure rights set forth in a variety of international agreements, and our leaders should be called to account for that failure.

Skeptics say that economic and social human rights are unenforceable utopian strivings. But the same was once true of the rights in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Yesterday’s utopian striving can become today’s cherished right.