<P> Ironically, a number of Islamic countries that as of 2014 are among the most resistant to UN intervention in domestic affairs, played an invaluable role in the creation of the Declaration, with countries such as Syria and Egypt having been strong proponents of the universality of human rights and the right of countries to self - determination . </P> <P> Groups such as Amnesty International and War Resisters International have advocated for "The Right to Refuse to Kill" to be added to the Universal Declaration . War Resisters International has stated that the right to conscientious objection to military service is primarily derived from--but not yet explicit in--Article 18 of the UDHR: the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion . </P> <P> Steps have been taken within the United Nations to make this right more explicit, but--to date (2017)--those steps have been limited to less significant United Nations documents . Sean MacBride--Assistant Secretary - General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize laureate--has said: "To the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights one more might, with relevance, be added . It is' The Right to Refuse to Kill' ." </P> <P> The American Anthropological Association criticized the UDHR while it was in its drafting process . The AAA warned that the document would be defining universal rights from a Western paradigm which would be unfair to countries outside of that scope . They further argued that the West's history of colonialism and evangelism made them a problematic moral representative for the rest of the world . They proposed three notes for consideration with underlying themes of cultural relativism: "1 . The individual realizes his personality through his culture, hence respect for individual differences entails a respect for cultural differences", "2 . Respect for differences between cultures is validated by the scientific fact that no technique of qualitatively evaluating cultures has been discovered", and "3 . Standards and values are relative to the culture from which they derive so that any attempt to formulate postulates that grow out of the beliefs or moral codes of one culture must to that extent detract from the applicability of any Declaration of Human Rights to mankind as a whole ." </P>

When did the united states ratify the universal declaration of human rights