Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on December 10 every year in honor the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on December 10, 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.
The UDHR enshrines the rights of all human beings.
From the right to education to equal pay, UDHR established for the first time the indivisible and inalienable rights of all humanity.
As a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”, the UDHR is a global blueprint for international, national, and local laws and policies and a bedrock of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development explicitly recognizes it is grounded in UDHR and has to be implemented in a manner that realizes human rights.
The UDHR has inspired many struggles for stronger human rights protection and helped them to be more recognized.
In the (nearly) 75 years since the proclamation of the UDHR, human rights have advanced. However, progress does not mean the fight for rights and equality ever ends.
Whenever and wherever humanity's values are abandoned, we all are at greater risk. The solutions to today’s greatest crises are rooted in human rights.
Rights violations reverberate across borders and across generations. These can be, must be, collectively overcome.
We need to stand up for our rights and those of others.
The UDHR calls upon everybody to stand up for human rights. We all have a role to play.
We need an economy that invests in human rights and works for everyone.
We need to renew the social contract between Governments and their people and within societies, so as to rebuild trust and embrace a shared and comprehensive vision of human rights on the road to a just and sustainable development.