Which of the following statements as per the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ is/are correct? 1. The Declaration provides that everyone has a right to seek and enjoy in other country’s asylum from prosecution in respect of political crimes. 2. The Declaration provides that everyone has the freedom from arbitrary deprival of nationality, except for the freedom to change nationality. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — A, 1 only. Statement 1 restates Article 14 of the Universal Declaration accurately. Article 14(1) says 'Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution', and Article 14(2) takes that right away only where the proceedings genuinely arise 'from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations'. Read the two clauses together and the shelter survives exactly where the offence is political, which is what statement 1 asserts. Statement 2 fails on the text of Article 15. Article 15(2) reads 'No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality' — the Declaration protects both freedoms in one breath, so the stem's carve-out, 'except for the freedom to change nationality', reverses what the article actually guarantees. One statement stands, one falls, and the answer is 1 only.
- (b)2 only — Keeps the wrong one. Article 15(2) protects the right to change nationality alongside the freedom from arbitrary deprivation, so the exception written into statement 2 does not exist in the Declaration.
- (c)Both 1 and 2 — Statement 1 is sound, but statement 2 contradicts Article 15(2) by excluding the very freedom that article names, so the pair cannot both be correct.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Too harsh on statement 1, which is a fair summary of Article 14 read as a whole — asylum is withheld for non-political crimes, which is another way of saying it remains available for political ones.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly at Paris on 10 December 1948, under resolution 217 A. Its thirty articles set out civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights as a common standard for all peoples. Article 14 deals with asylum and Article 15 with nationality, and both are short enough that an exam can test them almost word for word — which is what this item does.
This is a text-recall item dressed up as reasoning, so the safest route is to reconstruct the actual articles rather than argue from general principle. Article 14 is a two-part article and candidates who remember only the first clause find statement 1 confusing, because the words 'political crimes' appear nowhere in clause (1); they are the mirror image of clause (2)'s exclusion of non-political crimes. Article 15 is the easier of the two: the Declaration puts the freedom from arbitrary deprivation and the right to change nationality in the same sentence, so any option that separates them is wrong. One honest note on the printed paper. The booklet prints 'asylum from prosecution', where Article 14(1) says 'persecution', and 'in other country's asylum' where the article says 'in other countries asylum'. Those are the paper's own slips and they have been left as printed; they do not change the sense the examiner is testing, because Article 14(2) does speak of prosecutions.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed at Paris on 10 December 1948 by General Assembly resolution 217 A.
- Article 14(1): 'Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.'
- Article 14(2) withdraws that right for prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
- Article 15(2): 'No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.'
- Quoting only Article 14(1) and concluding that the Declaration says nothing about political crimes; the political-offence point lives in clause (2).
- Assuming the Declaration lets a state block a change of nationality — Article 15(2) protects that right in the same sentence as the freedom from arbitrary deprivation.
- Confusing the Declaration's asylum article with the 1951 Refugee Convention, which is a separate treaty with its own definition of a refugee.
Asked as a two-statement item that paraphrases named articles closely enough that the answer turns on whether you can reconstruct the article's second clause.
Consider the following: 1. Right to education. 2. Right to equal access to public service. 3. Right to food. Which of the above is/are Human Right/Human Rights under “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 2 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(d) 1, 2 and 3
The same document, tested by article recall rather than by clause recall. That UPSC item is answered by placing three rights in Articles 26, 21 and 25; this one is answered by reading Articles 14 and 15 to their second clause. Both reward the same habit of knowing what the Declaration actually says.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries may NOT be invoked in which one of the following cases?
- (a)Prosecutions arising from political offences
- (b)Prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes
- (c)Prosecutions for offences committed by minors
- (d)Prosecutions in a country that is not a UN member
Answer(b) Prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes — Article 14(2) also excludes acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on which date?
- (a)24 October 1945
- (b)10 December 1948
- (c)26 January 1950
- (d)16 December 1966
Answer(b) 10 December 1948 — proclaimed at Paris under General Assembly resolution 217 A.