The unforgivable curses and the US Declaration of Independence

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 96625

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Albus Dell 
<albus696 at y...> 
> wrote:
> > From the US Declaration of Independence:
> > 
> > > That among these [rights which all people have] are
> > > life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
> > 
> > I wonder if Rowling had this in mind when coming up
> > with the unforgivable curses. The Avada Kedavra is
> > obviously the violation of the first right; the
> > Imperius curse is a violation of the second (a
> > physical one - not a legal one, but the same idea);
> > and someone under the Cruciatus curse is almost as
> > unhappy as one can be!
> > 
> > Any thoughts on the matter?
> 
> Geoff:
> I wonder whether JKR would have considered the US 
Declaration of  Independence when I assume that she originally 
thought she was  writing for a largely British readership who 
might not be well-versed  in that document.<

Pippin:

I believe she was considering Article 3 of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights: "everyone has the right to life, 
liberty and security of person."  I don't think it's any coincidence 
that JKR, who was working for Amnesty International when she 
began writing Harry Potter, invented three curses whose 
purpose is  to violate these rights, and labelled them 
Unforgivable.  It establishes those  rights as primal, in a more 
magical and interesting way than having a wizarding constitution.

Pippin