Morality comes from the Latin word 'moralis' meaning the proper behaviour of a person - within an environment.
Morality is defined by a set of values that are essential for the long-term survival of an individual. Anyone who chooses to live, needs to develop a set of morals to live by. The key moral values are independence, productiveness, pride, integrity, honesty, justice and rationality.
Morality is dictated by our nature as humans. We must 'think' to be able to produce and therefore survive.
"To think or not to think - that is the question."
Morality is a necessity for humans even if marooned on a deserted Island. The need to learn and remember how to make a fire for warmth and decide what's safe to eat become moral values.
Morality on a deserted island would revolve around sustaining life, maintaining well-being, preserving integrity, and finding purpose, all of which are rooted in an individual's intrinsic sense of what is good and evil, even in the absence of societal influences.
Humans are not born with a moral code. They develop their moral code through thought and action. Humans are not born with desires to steal, or kill. They are born with only one goal and that is to live.
Morality becomes more difficult to recognise when living within a social group. Through interactions with others, individuals acquire character traits and habits like compromise and generosity, which become a set of social virtues.
Living within a social group is where humans must remember their moral code even while acting according to a chosen set of social virtues. Virtues that compliment morals make the individual happier and healthier whereas virtues contradicting morals harm the individual.
Living according to a set of social virtues that contradict an individual's moral values will result in confusion and Hypocrisy.
Just imagine stealing something from someone knowing all the while that you would hate someone doing that to you.
Another example would be, if the state has mandated compulsory national service in the military and also supports an individual's right to pursue a healthy and happy life. This would constitute a contradiction. In this case, the state claims the right to sacrifice an individual's life for the sake of the state.
If individuals allow this type of contradiction to persist, they contribute to the hypocrisy. They are accepting that their moral code is not as important as the state's mandate. These realities show how important it is to develop and live by our morality.
The concept of Universal Morality is an attempt to define a moral code that can apply to any human no matter the environment both physical and political.
As of yet, there is no internationally agreed implementation of Universal Morality, but the The Organization of American States(OAS) has defined and implemented a version of it at the local level.
See Article 17 within Chapter IV 'FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF STATES' where it describes:
"Each State has the right to develop its cultural, political, and economic life freely and naturally. In this free development, the State shall respect the rights of the individual and the principles of universal morality."
Within Article 29 of The United Nations universal declaration of human rights states:
"Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others ...
... and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations".
Historically, there have been many attempts at defining and implementing universal morality. Various religious and philosophical traditions have developed the idea that certain moral rules are universal.
An early example is found in Judaism with the Seven Laws of Noah, which according to the Talmud (the primary source of Jewish religious law. 20 - 200CE), were given by God as a binding set of universal moral laws for all of humanity. These laws included : prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, sexual immorality, theft, eating flesh from a living animal and the establishment of courts of justice.