Pogge-further

After our class discussion today, I felt this post needed writing (unfortunately, we ran out of time before I could address the following question/issue). Pogge, most notably in his conclusion of Chapter 1, asserts that his sense of justice and flourishment is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or at least highly correlated to a degree of being quasi-synanymous.. However, I find this aspect problematic. If we look at the actual Universal Declaration of Human Rights document, it has been approved by the U.N. General Assembly. In fact, the U.N. website had this to say about the document, "Following this historic act, the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and 'to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.' " (http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html). Based on this information, Pogge's point seems redundant though not irrelevant. In being adopted by the U.N. member states in 1948, I think one could reasonably argue the Declaration already does constitute an internationally recognized criteria of justice, the same thing for which Pogge's first chapter aims. Now, I would agree if Pogge is trying to say the Declaration and its ideas be adopted because they are not. My question is what proposition is he making that hasn't been achieved in terms of universal criterion for justice?

Also, on a side note, I'm disappointed nobody commented on my Dagger blog from a few classes back. Professor McCrickerd, I would welcome you to open season on that post if you are still interested!