Alex Neve on why Canada still falls short on human rights

Canadians have long believed we are a nation that upholds and protects human rights. Yet Alex Neve says this country’s human rights scorecard, much like the rest of the world’s, has been spotty since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Neve is a human rights lawyer who led Amnesty International Canada for over two decades and is now an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

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In his new book Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World, written for the 2025 CBC Massey Lectures, Neve explores the original promise of universal human rights, revisits his Amnesty International-led campaigns in 20 countries and gives his prescriptions for Canada. He spoke with Yvonne Lau in mid-November.

Yvonne Lau: The UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights nearly 80 years ago, which articulated that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” How has the world fared in upholding it?

Alex Neve: In 1948, the world had come out of a time of incredible conflict and division. There were all sorts of reasons for governments to become inward-looking. But instead, they committed to a global community by creating the United Nations and this promise of universal human rights for the first time in human history.

However, we never truly embraced the notion of universality. When the Declaration was adopted, it was clearly flawed: the world was still under the racist yoke of colonialism, and there were only four UN member states from Africa, one of whom was apartheid-era South Africa.

In these last few years, we look to the genocide in Gaza, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the horrific civil war in Sudan — which most of the world isn’t even paying attention to — [and] the climate crisis, feeling like the promise is completely coming undone.

This idea of universal human rights… hasn’t delivered the goods. But that’s not because it was the wrong idea. When we take the long view, over the past 80 years, there has been enormous human rights progress. We need to hold on to that [promise] as something that was, and is, very significant.

YL: What role does human rights play in Canada’s national........

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