Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is a foundational human rights document and bill of rights of the Union of American Socialist Republics, ratified on 24 September 1933.

History
While the Workers’ Party had taken a decisive command over the revolutionary soviets as well as the commanding heights of the Provisional Government, this was not without costs. The formation of the United Democratic Front granted the revolutionary government supermajoritarian legitimacy and the junior members of the Front demanded a commensurate price.

While proposals by Democratic-Republicans to reform the existing constitution or produce a new liberal constitution with the consultation of leading American and Continental jurists were dead on arrival, under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt III and Daniel Roper, the Democratic-Republican coalition had held a hard line on securing amnesty for members of the business class who would accomodate to the new order, and the enactment of an entrenched bill of rights to protect citizens from arbitrary despotism.

The Workers’ Party had held constitutionalism in disdain as legalism that served no purpose but to secure the interests of the propertied classes. This disdain came from the bitter experience in seeing how little the guarantees made by the old Bill of Rights had been worth.

It was one thing to argue it when out of power and subject to abuses in the name of national security. But in October 1933, with the civil war winding down to its inevitable conclusion, the communist rank and file were faced with the unknown territory of governing. Browder gave his assent to the proposal, assuaging the fears brewing among the rank and file of a perpetual emergency period.

In the paranoia of the putsch and civil war, many innocent workers had run afoul of overzealous “Extraordinary Commissions” tasked with rooting out reactionaries and counterrevolutionaries. Many others had used the revolution as smokescreen to settle old grudges.

The Constitutional Committee of the Congress of Soviets met on 7 October 1933 and elected a Drafting Commission composed of equal representatives from the Workers’ Party, the DFLP and the DRP. The Commission was chaired by prominent New York public intellectual Eleanor Roosevelt, and would consult with prominent lawyers and jurists associated with the National Civil Liberties Union.

The first draft prepared incorporated substantial language from the Bill of Rights, as well as textual homages to the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The first week was dominated by debates between Roger Nash Baldwin and Robert Taft over the status of private property. Baldwin argued the communist line that entrenching property rights was not only incompatible with the establishment of a workers’ republic, it was incompatible with the organic laws already ratified by the Congress of Soviets. Taft countered by arguing that other planks protecting privacy were dead letters without robust property rights over homes.

With the whole venture verging on being scuttled over liberal intransigence, the liberal faction relented. Arguments shifted towards including language giving special protection to motherhood and childhood Article XV, over perhaps overblown fears that equal rights provisions would be interpreted reductio ad absurdum.

Communists successfully lobbied to change the wording of Article III, which had previously been a near verbatim copy of the Thirteenth Amendment, to delete exemptions for forced labor being applied as part of the punishment of prisoners. The DFLP successfully direct textual quotations from the Fourteenth Amendment in Article II.

Following debates and preliminary amendments, a second draft was made. The new draft separated the freedom of speech and religious freedom sections borrowed from the First Amendment into two separate articles, now numbered V and XII respectively. Article V clarified speech protections with more expansive language, and Article XII’s new language walled off the government from religious interference totally.

Another new article was added, establishing the age of majority at 18 and barred age discrimination, and at Chairman Roosevelt’s suggestion was inserted as the new Article XVIII for ease of memorization.

The final draft was sent to the whole Committee for debate. After assurances given to all parties that the proposed Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was not meant to be the exhaustive, final word on the matter, the whole committee voted without opposition to recommend ratification. Measures that would have focused on substantive economic and cultural rights to appeal to socialists, as well as measures to safeguard the revolution from degeneration were put aside for a later date as the Constitutional Committee turned its attentions framing a more permanent system of government to replace the ad hoc emergency government of the Civil War.

Full Text
Preamble

It is precisely because rights are neither natural, owing to the inexorable laws of the universe, nor ordained by God, but rather legislated by humans, that they are so precious. In the degeneration of the Old Republic, we the peoples of the Union of American Socialist Republics have witnessed the limits of bourgeois legalism.

We recognize the truth that the order of society is a product of class conflict. No matter how well articulated or thoughtfully legislated, the rights of persons, toilers, exploited peoples and ultimately all citizens in class society are dead letters, extended at best only in the most convenient of times, and savagely curtailed whenever the material logic of political economy finds it expedient.

This Declaration of the Man and Citizen is a social contract, ratified by the Soviets of Workers', Farmers', Soldiers', and People's Deputies. It is a promise made by the revolutionary vanguard to the whole people, and to all succeeding generations, never to forget the painful lessons of despotism and class oppression.

It is a living promise, an entrenched law that shall serve as a statement of principles to guide the revolutionary experiment in the coming years. It is a binding promise to the revolutionary government, requiring of it to secure the fundamental freedom and dignity of all its subjects.

It is an affirmation of the most cherished goal of the revolutionary vanguard, to seek a condition of society in which there shall be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor slave, in which all peoples shall enjoy freedom and equality of condition, in which life will no longer be ruled by cruel necessity, but instead devoted to the pursuit of happiness.

Article I

All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of comradeship. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, whether by race, color, creed, sex, language, religious or political opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Article II

All persons born or naturalized in the Union, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the Union and of the Socialist Republic in which they reside. No member of the Union shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges, rights or immunities of citizens; nor shall any party to the Union deprive any person of life or liberty without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.

Article III

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all its forms.

Article IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. No warrants be shall be issued except upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article V

No law shall be made or enforced that abridges the right of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or freedom of the broadcast and recorded media. The right of the people to peacefully assemble and participate in politics shall not be infringed.

Article VI

No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel and unusual punishment, nor shall any punishment be disproportionate to the crime committed.

Article VII

No person shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article VIII

No person shall be held to answer for any capital or otherwise infamous crime unless upon indictment by a Grand Jury, nor shall any person be made to answer twice for the same offence, nor shall any person be compelled to bear witness against himself.

Article IX

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Everyone is entitled to be informed of the nature and cause of any accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have legal counsel for his defense.

Article X

Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

Article XI

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Article XII

The UASR is founded upon the doctrine of state atheism; no law shall be made privileging any religion, its institutions or its adherents over any other, or over nonbelief.

Article XIII

Everyone has the right to work and the right of free choice in employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment. The right of workers to manage their workplaces shall not be infringed. The right to form and join independent trade unions shall be inalienable.

Article XIV

The Union of American Socialist Republics is a socialist state; the state, natural resources, and the means of production shall belong to the People, to be administered fairly and democratically for the common benefit of all.

Article XV

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. 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.

Article XVI

Everyone has the right to education, funded in whole by the polity. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial and religious groups.

Article XVII

Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

Article XVIII

The universal age of majority shall be eighteen. All persons of this age are entitled to vote, and may stand for any office within the Union. The right to vote, individual or collective, shall not be infringed.

Article XIX

The security of the workers' republic rests upon the armed mass of the whole people. To this end, the right of the Soviets to form militias, provide for the training and arming of any militia, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms in accordance with the reasonable limits of a free and democratic society, shall not be infringed.