Universal Declaration of Human Rights and us

In one of my other classes that I am taking this semester we went over the entirety of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was agreed upon by the world post WWII. One of the articles in particular came to mind when we were having our discussions in class this week because we were talking about how some people are treated less than others and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights purpose was to ensure even treatment between people. In article #4 it states “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” My understanding of this article is basically that anything that is deemed forced servitude is slavery. But should this include prison inmates as well when they are practically forced to do labor for corporations and the prison in order to get a lower sentence and if they don’t they get a longer one. Another point that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes is in Article #2 where it states “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” When this article says “…distinction of any kind…”should that not include people who have committed crimes as well? When do we become less than human in committing crimes and lose the entitlements of our natural rights? In class pretty much everyone raised their hand and said they have committed a crime so does that mean that we are no longer purely human? Article 3 also states “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” If this is true do we break this part of the Declaration every time a judge gives the death penalty because if it’s a basic human right to be allowed to live, how can committing crimes take away humanity? Although I know the counter-argument to this statement is that people who generally get the death penalty have taken another person’s life. But then are we reverting back to such practices as the Code of Hammurabi as in “An eye for an eye” so it’s a life for a life. Article #5 then states “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Its proven fact that Americans have committed torture in Guantanamo Bay mostly under the Bush administration were the restraints on this rights were loosened but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be able to trump the Presidents power because it was agreed upon by many nations and is not just a law of The United States. My final point having to do with what we as Americans perceive as our protected natural rights as included in the first ten articles of The United States Constitution is that when The Bill of Rights was created they forgot one key thing which is that the Supreme Court gets to interpret the laws anyway they want. For example, we have the Freedom of Speech but the Supreme Court can say well you can say what you want but only when you are in the privacy of your own home, not on television, not screaming fire in a crowded building, etc… Our rights are NOT Guaranteed and neither are they absolute so we will forever be oppressed by powers virtually out of our control.