The right to be free and equal in dignity and rights-TEAM 1

 ONLINE MEETING-TEAM 1

    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). 

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.

    Dignity is the foundation of all human rights. Human beings have rights, and should be treated with utmost care, precisely because each one possesses intrinsic worth.

    Mary Robinson, another former human rights chief, regards dignity as “an inner sense of self-worth,” a concept that “evokes an empathy with the other, connecting us one to the other.” 

    It has also provided the springboard for new interpretations of human rights. As Robinson said, “in our interconnected world, that empathy must expand to tackling the gross inequalities that raise issues of justice.” 

    Article 1 sets equality as the all-embracing overarching theme of the Declaration, one that has been the basis for elaborating rights for many – including minorities, indigenous people and people with disabilities. 

     Dignity (a word that appears five times in the Declaration) is on the one hand an irrefutable argument, and on the other an ambiguous concept, not always easily translated into legislation. Even so, dignity now is recognized as a right in more than 160 of the world’s constitutions (of 193 UN members), compared to only five countries that used the term in their constitutions in 1945.