Human Rights and International Governance

Now that the Labour Day weekend has come and gone, part of me can’t help but wonder where the summer went. More specifically, I wonder what happened to the holidays. In an age of instant wireless communication the office is never far away, so much so that it is becoming increasingly difficult to take time off. Now, more than ever, there is increasing pressure to work during times that have traditionally been reserved for family and friends. And even when we aren’t working, work is on the mind.
     I know that I am not alone. Just this week Dalton McGuinty, the current Premier of Ontario, proposed instituting a new holiday in February. Of course, this is an election year and he is trying to appeal to voters. While this election ploy probably won’t be the deciding factor when Ontarians go to the polls, I suspect that his announcement will resonate at least a little bit with anyone in this province who is feeling a little tired and maybe even burnt out.
     Globalization and the rapid growth of the emerging economies are not helping the situation. There has been a great deal of talk in the news about the need to be competitive in the global economy. The fear is that if we rest on our laurels, so to speak, we will be left behind, and the prosperity and standard of living that we have become accustomed to will be in jeopardy. I don’t mean to minimize these concerns, because the global economy is indeed changing. Nonetheless, my sense is that as a society we need to become better at finding greater balance in our lives.
     This is obviously not a new dilemma. Industrialization in the 19th century produced a great number of social ills, including numerous cases in which employees were over-worked, sometimes even to death. It was because of the inequities that labour organized around campaigns to limit the number of hours that a worker could be expected work during a twenty-four-hour period. Moreover, few people realize this but the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights has something to say about this issue. Article 24 states that “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.” Although it is one of the articles of the UDHR that has received relatively little attention, its inclusion was an explicit recognition that problems can occur in a society when time away from work is treated as a luxury and not an entitlement.
     By law, employers in Canada and the rest of the industrialized world have to allow their employees to take holidays. But as I mentioned above, for many professionals it has become harder and harder to leave work at the office. I’m not sure what the solution is if there is one at all. But this seems clear enough: the right to rest and leisure is of little value if we as a society have forgotten how to relax.

The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author only, and do not represent the views of any organization or institution with which he is affiliated.