Constitutions & Charters
- Constitutions
  - Constitutions of Interest
  - 10 Movies: 10 Constitutions
- Charters
  - The United Nations
  - Other Conventions and Declararations

Constitutions & Charters

Constitutions

You can find almost every single constitution, ever adopted, for almost every single country in the world, in multiple languages, at the University of Richmond's Constitution Finder.

Constitutions of Interest

Below we have selected a few that we think are of particular importance:

The South African constitution is said to be the worlds most progressive and most democratic constitution. Find out yourself at The South African Government Information Services

The oldest and shortest constitution still in function today is The Constitution of the United States of America. It was adopted in 1787 and is four pages long. By reading it you can learn what actors in American movies mean when they say: “In article 3 of the Constitution blablabla”!

In the National Archives you can also see a high resolution picture of the actual constitution and learn more about how the constitution was made and what impact it has had over the centuries.

If you want to find out what constitution Yama-san (The Kawasaki Candidate) is going to be working within or how President Mubarak of Egypt legally can be the only person on the presidential voting ballot you can find out. Here you can find links for the constitutions of the 10 countries where the 10 Why Democracy? films take place.

Bloody Cartoons - constitution of Denmark
Campaign! The Kawasaki Candidate – constitution of Japan
Dinner with the President – constitution of Pakistan
Egypt: We Are Watching You – constitution of Egypt
For God, Tsar and Fatherland – constitution of Russia
In Search of Gandhi – constitution of India
Iron Ladies of Liberia – constitution of Liberia
Looking for the Revolution – constitution of Bolivia (1)
Please Vote for Me – constitution of China
Taxi to the Dark Side – constitution of USA and Afghanistan

(1)OBS: As far as the Why Democracy House can tell the constitution of Bolivia is only available online in Spanish. If you happen to know a place where it is available in English (or you want to translate it for us) we would really appreciate if you would let us know.

Charters

There are a lot of charters in the world. Most of them are not legally binding. Here you can find a few that we think are relevant and that you might find interesting.

The United Nations

Even though we cannot vote for the politicians representing us at the United Nations, it is a very large international organization, that has a lot to say. They work on the basis of the Charter of the United Nations

Over the years the United Nations have developed a bunch of charters that outline our rights. They are all available at the Office of the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights

The first declaration of human rights that was adopted by the United Nations was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was adopted in 1948. (1)

(1) OBS: This declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 13th of September, 2007. Only four countries voted against it. The four countries were the United States of America, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

Other Conventions and Declararations

In the 10 Why Democracy? films the issues of women, minority and indigenous peoples rights and the international legal issues of torture. Therefore, we think you might find these conventions interesting too:

(1) OBS: On the official United Nation's web page you are invited to send comments, contributions or queries about the UDHR to hredatabase@ohchr.org.