The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of

human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all
regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly
in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of
achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human
rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The
UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than
seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels
(all containing references to it in their preambles).

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have
outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall
enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as
the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to

rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of
law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal
rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United
Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and
fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance
for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for
all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping
this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect
for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to
secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of
Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be
made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or
territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or
under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all
their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of
the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this
Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts
violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial
tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against
him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until
proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees
necessary for his defence.

2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which
did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when
it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was
applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of
each state.

2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-
political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United
Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his
nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion,
have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to
marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending
spouses.

3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to
protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others
and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and
observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through
freely chosen representatives.

2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
 3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be
expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal
suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization,
through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization
and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his
dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for
himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if
necessary, by other means of social protection.

4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and
periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of
himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,
sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances
beyond his control.

2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children,
whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary
and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and
 professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be
equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the
strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups,
and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their
children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy
the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting
from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set
forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of
his personality is possible.

2. 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.

3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.

Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any
right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights
and freedoms set forth herein.

International human rights treaties establish agreed-upon human rights standards and
mechanisms to monitor their implementation. By ratifying a treaty, a country voluntarily accepts
legal obligations under international law. Some key human rights treaties include:

 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Treaties are:

 Binding formal agreements, contracts, or other written instruments that establish

obligations between two or more subjects of international law (primarily states and
international organizations).

 Agreements made between the Government of Canada, Indigenous groups, and often
provinces and territories that define ongoing rights and obligations on all sides.

 These agreements set out continuing treaty rights and benefits for each group.

International human rights instruments are the treaties and other international texts that serve
as legal sources for international human rights law and the protection of human rights in
general.[1] There are many varying types, but most can be classified into two broad categories:

 declarations, adopted by bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, which
are by nature declaratory, so not legally-binding although they may be politically
authoritative and very well-respected soft law;,[2] and often express guiding principles;
and
 conventions that are multi-party treaties that are designed to become legally binding,
usually include prescriptive and very specific language, and usually are concluded by a
long procedure that frequently requires ratification by each states' legislature.
 Lesser known are some "recommendations" which are similar to conventions in being
multilaterally agreed, yet cannot be ratified, and serve to set common standards.[3]
  There may also be administrative guidelines that are agreed multilaterally by states, as
well as the statutes of tribunals or other institutions.
 A specific prescription or principle from any of these various international instruments
can, over time, attain the status of customary international law whether it is specifically
accepted by a state or not, just because it is well-recognized and followed over a
sufficiently long time.

International human rights instruments can be divided further into

 global instruments, to which any state in the world can be a party, and
 regional instruments, which are restricted to states in a particular region of the world.

Most conventions and recommendations (but few declarations) establish mechanisms for
monitoring and establish bodies to oversee their implementation. In some cases these bodies
that may have relatively little political authority or legal means, and may be ignored by member
states; in other cases these mechanisms have bodies with great political authority and their
decisions are almost always implemented. A good example of the latter is the European Court of
Human Rights.

Monitoring mechanisms also vary as to the degree of individual access to expose cases of abuse
and plea for remedies. Under some conventions or recommendations – e.g. the European
Convention on Human Rights – individuals or states are permitted, subject to certain conditions,
to take individual cases to a full-fledged tribunal at international level. Sometimes, this can be
done in national courts because of universal jurisdiction.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights together with
other international human rights instruments are sometimes referred to as the "International
Bill of Human Rights". International human rights instruments are identified by
the OHCHR[4] and most are referenced on the OHCHR website.

Declarations

Global

 Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1923

 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 1948)

 Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (UN, 1975)

 Declaration on the Right to Development (UN study published in 1979; UN declaration

proclaimed in 1986)
  Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (World Conference on Human Rights,
1993)

 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (The Fourth World Conference on Women,
1995)

 Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities (UNESCO, 1998)

 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001)

 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN, 2007)

 UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity (UN, 2008)

Regional: Americas

 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (OAS, 1948)

 American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (OAS, 2016)

Regional: Asia

 Declaration of the Basic Duties of ASEAN Peoples and Governments (Regional Council of
Human Rights in Asia, 1983)

 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (ASEAN, 2009)

Regional: Middle East

 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (OIC,1990)

Conventions

Global

According to OHCHR, there are 9 core international human rights instruments and several
optional protocols.[5]

 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, 21 December

1965)

 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 16 December 1966)

 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 16 December

1966)

 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW,

18 December 1979)
  Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CAT, 10 December 1984)

 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 20 November 1989)

 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families (ICMW, 18 December 1990)

 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced

Disappearance (CPED, 20 December 2006)

 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 13 December 2006)

Several more human rights instruments exist. A few examples:

 The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of

Apartheid (ICSPCA)

 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families

 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Protocol Relating to the Status of
Refugees

 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (ILO 169)

 Inaugural HURIDOCS Assembly (HURIDOCS, 24 July 1982)

 SOS-Torture Convention (OMCT, 14 April 1983)

Regional: Africa

[edit]

 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (June, 1981)

 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990)

 Maputo Protocol (11 July 2003)

 African Youth Charter (June 30,2006)

 African Disability Protocol (June 30,2019)

 SADC Gender Protocol (revised version enters into force 2018)

Regional: America

[edit]

 American Convention on Human Rights

 Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture

 Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons

 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence

against Women

 Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against

Persons with Disabilities

Regional: Europe

[edit]

 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

 Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings

 European Convention on Nationality

 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML)

 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading

Treatment or Punishment (CPT)

 European Social Charter (ESC), and Revised Social Charter

 Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM)

Regional: Middle East

[edit]

 Arab Charter on Human Rights (ACHR) (22 May 2004)

See also

[edit]

 Universal jurisdiction

 Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project (RULAC)

 International Criminal Court (established in 2002)

 International human rights law

 Human rights inflation

 Human rights treaty bodies

 List of human rights organizations

 List of indigenous rights organizations

 List of international animal welfare conventions

 Rule of law

 Rule According to Higher Law

 An Optional Protocol is a legal instrument related to an

existing treaty that addresses issues that the parent
treaty does not cover or does not cover sufficiently. It is
usually open to ratification or accession only by States that are
parties to the parent treaty. Optional Protocols are treaties in
their own right, and are open to signature, ratification or
accession. The Optional Protocol does not establish any new
rights, but rather allows the rights guaranteed in the
convention to be enforced. For example, the Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
involvement of children in armed conflict is a commitment that
states will not recruit or conscript children under the age of 18
to send them to the battlefield.

What is an Optional Protocol?

Very often, human rights treaties are followed by "Optional Protocols" which may either
provide for procedures with regard to the treaty or address a substantive area related to
the treaty. Optional Protocols to human rights treaties are treaties in their own right,
and are open to signature, accession or ratification by countries who are party to the
main treaty.
The optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women includes:
 The Communications Procedure
 Gives individuals and groups of women the right to complain to the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women about violations of the Convention. this
procedure is known as "the communications procedure". United Nations
communications procedures provide the right to petition or the right to complain about
violations of rights. Under all procedures, the complaint must be in writing.
 The Inquiry Procedure
It enables the Committee to conduct inquiries into grave or systematic abu 06-Nov-
2006 e party to the Optional Protocol. Known as an inquiry procedure, this capacity is
found in article 8 of the Optional Protocol.
The optional protocol includes an inquiry procedure, as well as a complaints procedure.
An inquiry procedure enables the Committee to conduct inquiries into serious and
systematic abuses of women's human rights in countries that become States parties to
the Optional Protocol. It is modelled on an existing human rights inquiry procedure,
article 20 of the International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The inquiry procedure:
 Allows investigation of substantial abuses of women's human rights by an international
body of experts;
 Is useful where individual communications fail to reflect the systemic nature of
widespread violations of women's rights;
 Allows widespread violations to be investigated where individuals or groups may be
unable to make communications (for practical reasons or because of fear of reprisals);
 Gives the Committee an opportunity to make recommendations regarding the structural
causes of violations;
 Allows the Committee to address a broad range of issues in a particular country.