What are our human rights?

UDHR 60 UDHR 60: We are all born free and equal

Human rights are what every human being needs to live a healthy and fulfilled life and to participate fully in society. They are entitlements - you have them just because you are human.

Human rights are:

  • Universal - they apply to everyone equally
  • Inalienable - they cannot be taken away from people
  • Indivisible - they are all connected: failure to protect one right can lead to abuse of other rights, just as taking action to fulfil one right can lead to the fulfilment of other rights.

Human rights are underpinned by a set of common values that have been prevalent in societies, civilisations and religions throughout history, such as fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drawn up by the United Nations and presented to the world on 10 December 1948. More about the birth of the UDHR

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(summary version)

Article 1
We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.

Article 2
These rights belong to everybody; whether we are rich or poor, whatever country we live in, whatever sex or whatever colour we are, whatever language we speak, whatever we think or whatever we believe.

Article 3
We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.

Article 4
Nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone else our slave.

Article 5
Nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us.

Article 6
We all have the same right to use the law.

Article 7
The law is the same for everyone. It must treat us all fairly.

Article 8
We can all ask for the law to help us when we are not treated fairly.

Article 9
Nobody has the right to put us in prison without a good reason, to keep us there or to send us away from our country.

Article 10
If someone is accused of breaking the law they have the right to a fair and public trial.

Article 11
Nobody should be blamed for doing something until it has been proved that they did it. If people say we did something bad, we have the right to show this was not true. Nobody should punish us for something that we did not do, or for doing something which was not against the law when we did it.

Article 12
Nobody should try to harm our good name. Nobody has the right to come into our home, open our letters, or bother us or our family without a very good reason.

Article 13
We all have the right to go where we want to in our own country and to travel abroad as we wish.

Article 14
If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe.

Article 15
We all have the right to belong to a country.

Article 16
Every grown up has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated.

Article 17
Everyone has the right to own things or share them. Nobody should take our things from us without a good reason.

Article 18
We all have the right to believe in what we want to believe, to have a religion, or to change it if we want.

Article 19
We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people wherever they live, through books, radio, television and in other ways.

Article 20
We all have the right to meet our friends and to work together in peace to defend our rights. Nobody can make us join a group if we don't want to.

Article 21
We all have the right to take part in the government of our country. Every grown up should be allowed to choose their own leaders from time to time and should have a vote which should be made in secret.

Article 22
We all have the right to a home, to have enough money to live on and medical help if we are ill. We should all be allowed to enjoy music, art, craft, sport and to make use of our skills.

Article 23
Every grown up has the right to a job, to get a fair wage for their work, and to join a trade union.

Article 24
We all have the right to rest from work and relax.

Article 25
We all have the right to a good life, with enough food, clothing, housing, and healthcare. Mothers and children, people without work, old and disabled people all have the right to help.

Article 26
We all have the right to an education, and to finish primary school, which should be free. We should be able learn a career, or to make use of all our skills. We should learn about the United Nations and about how to get on with other people and respect their rights. Our parents have the right to choose how and what we will learn.

Article 27
We all have the right to our own way of life, and to enjoy the good things that science and learning bring.

Article 28
We have a right to peace and order so we can all enjoy rights and freedoms in our own country and all over the world.

Article 29
We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms.

Article 30
Nobody can take away these rights and freedoms from us.

Read the original | Download: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (summary) pdf

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Atrocities committed by states during the Second World War, and in particular the appalling abuses of the Holocaust, led the newly formed United Nations to establish a Human Rights Commission in 1947.

A group of government leaders came together, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, to draft a new document in an attempt to prevent such human rights abuses from happening again. The vision of these leaders was not only influenced by events in Europe; other world events such as the assassination of Gandhi in India and the beginning of apartheid in South Africa were also at the forefront of their minds.

The resulting document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), was adopted by the countries of the UN in 1948 and it remains the most famous and most important of all human rights frameworks in the world. The preamble recognises a universal entitlement to rights for all humans, and sets the aim of contributing towards freedom, justice and peace in the world. Human rights are defined in the subsequent 30 articles.

The UDHR is not legally binding for countries, but it has formed the basis of a range of treaties that are legally binding, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention against Torture. Regional groups of countries and individual states have incorporated these human rights into their own treaties, such the European Convention on Human Rights and the UK Human Rights Act.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt