Download PDFNondiscursive Rhetoric in the Illustrated UDHR
It is also interesting to note how some of the nondiscursive rhetoric of the Illustrated Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights serves to reinforce the standards and practices laid out by the document. Although the UDHR has been translated into more than 360 languages, the illustrated version is only available in “Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.” These happen to cover all the languages spoken by the nations of the Security Council. Per the UN website, there is no reason given for this illustrated version of rights, other than it contributes to their cause. In the interest of brevity, I will limit my discussion of the nondiscursive rhetoric to a few of the major and most obvious take-aways.
Color
The illustrations in the book consist of simple, white, stick figure renderings of a human person against bold and brightly colored backdrops that subtly display the article’s number in the background. Most of the illustrated pages include a singular solid backdrop color; overwhelmingly red and blue, but also includes a couple of purple, green, and yellow examples. Red and blue are among some of the most popular flag colors around the world, with the meanings of the colors varying between Western and non-Western interpretations. The relevant Western meanings for red evoke feelings of strength, determination, and courage, while some non-Western meanings of red evoke luck, prosperity, power, and happiness. Western meanings for blue include peace, loyalty, honor, and trust, while non-Eastern meanings for blue include immortality, protection, and femininity. These meanings are significant because sometimes color is culturally dependent. For example, “although Black is the color of death in many countries, in China the color associated with death is White” (“The Meaning of Colors”). Universally, color is used to persuade audiences to feel a certain way at an almost subconscious level, and it is interesting to examine what the universal audience is being persuaded to believe. With blue and red backgrounds comprising over two thirds of the image backgrounds, contrasted against the white stick figure in each illustration, these three colors serve the agenda of the document by evoking nationalistic responses from countries that also use blue, red, and white in their flags. These colors are more obviously nationalistic for peoples governed under flags that utilize blue, red, and white, and the intent seems to be geared toward trying to get all nations to respond in this way, even though it is primarily Western nations that utilize this color scheme (Bada).
The Figure
The stick figure in the drawing is most often shown standing alone, with only 7/30 illustrations depicting two or more figures at once. We know that the figure is male because of the distinguishing long hair drawn onto female stick figures, as seen on the illustration for Article 16 on marriage and family. This supports earlier claims about women only appearing in the written UDHR in relation to man and their union as the pinnacle of family. Female figures (stick figures with hair) are also depicted under Article 2 which discusses universal rights and freedoms “without distinction” and includes “race, color, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” as examples of distinctions to remain neutral about. This ideal is mirrored in the accompanying drawing which depicts an eight-pointed star made up of stick people, four of which have the distinct feminine long hair added and seven of which are not white, though none of them are black. The one white figure in the bottom center is surrounded by stick figures whose faces are colored in with varying shades of pink and tan. This is the only time non-white figures appear in the illustrations, furthering earlier suggestions that although the UDHR likes to position itself as inclusive and diverse, it consistently subverts this message with contradictory preferential treatment and representation towards light skin. Additionally, by continuously situating the stick figure alone, and as usually smiling, the images suggest the ideals of rugged individualism prevalent in Western societies (primarily the United States) and remove the communal aspects of the UDHR that should be further incorporated. In many non-Western countries, family and community groups are among the most fundamental points of society, and so seeing a series of singular figures might not translate as smoothly as it does for countries like the United States, who value individual pursuits much more highly.
The Judge
One final observation that stood out was the appearance of a stick figure highly stylized as an English judge in court, complete with robe and curly white wig. This figure appears under Article 8, which states that “everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals,” and under Article 1,0 which states that “everyone is entitles in full equality to a fair and public hearing.” These depictions are not only problematic because they present a distinctly Western (English) judge as the ultimate authority and possibility for freedom or redemption, but also because it suggests the intention for further colonization of less powerful countries, some of which still use wigs in court despite their independence from the United Kingdom. It might be more appropriate to depict multiple, diverse stick figures considering the case of another stick figure to represent an unbiased council of a fair and qualified judging system. This list is not exhaustive, but it does highlight a few of the ways that the illustrated visual rhetoric of the UDHR continues to support a Western-centric ideology and further marginalizes groups under the guise of equality.