Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): 30 Articles - 30 Documents: Exhibit for the 75th Anniversary

The right to privacy, and by extension the right to protection from surveillance, has taken on a new context in light of the widespread availability of the Internet and the variety of electronic technologies across the globe. Electronic communications are vulnerable to unauthorized access by a variety of parties, leading to the potential for violating an individual’s privacy rights. Surveillance poses risks, not only to privacy, but also to the freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

The Special Rapporteur’s mandate began in 1993 and has produced a series of reports. The 2013 Rapporteur Frank La Rue’s report analysed the implications of countries’ surveillance of communications. It argued that there needed to be further studies carried out on new modalities of surveillance, and to revise national laws regulating these practices in line with international human rights standards. The report stressed that without updated legislation and legal guidelines that could ensure the privacy, security, and anonymity of communications, the human rights of those involved could not be adequately protected in the modern technological age. The recommendations expressed in the Rapporteur’s report can be useful tools in protection from digital surveillance, and in the assurance of the human right to privacy and freedom of expression.

UN Photo, #329512

The human rights dimension of population transfer and freedom of movement has been a growing trend since the Second World War, with the search for employment being one of the key incentives for the crossing of national borders. The rights of migrant workers specifically needed to be addressed in this context.

The Convention was adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 1990 during its 45th session and was ratified in 2003. It was specifically drafted to protect the rights of migrant workers and their families, recognising their right to move within and outside their respective countries, and that those who moved across borders should retain their universal human rights. As stated in Article 39 of the Convention, “Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to liberty of movement in the territory of the State of employment and freedom to choose their residence there”. Although this Convention has not been as widely supported as some of the other core international human rights instruments, it legitimizes the freedom of movement by migrants for the estimated 150 million migrant workers and their families (ILO study, 2015).

UN Photo/Martine Perret, #413755

The occurrence of the Second World War displaced millions of people. Refugees were not a new phenomenon, but their number was now much bigger than ever before, and the international community was in urgent need of agreements that related to the protection of refugees and stateless persons. Existing conventions had to be adapted to the new conditions that the war had created, and international law had to be developed under the auspices of the newly created United Nations.

Following a Study on the Position of Stateless Persons (E/1112) issued by the Secretary-General in February 1949, the Economic and Social Council appointed an Ad-hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems (E/RES/248 (IX) B) later that year. This Ad-hoc Committee, focused on the refugee, produced a Draft Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. In 1950, the General Assembly decided that a Conference of Plenipotentiaries was to be convened to finalize the Convention. The Conference met in Geneva in July 1951 and unanimously adopted the Draft Convention.

The 1951 Convention, which entered into force three years later, is still the most widely ratified refugee treaty and remains the central feature in the international regime of refugee protection.

UN Photo/Sophia Paris, #433733

During the Second World War era, people not only lost their homes but their nationalities as well. The lack of nationality poses great problems; it deprives people of rights most of the global population takes for granted. They are being denied a legal identity, and as a result, lose access to education, healthcare, marriage and job opportunities, and even a death certificate.

The 1954 Convention was the first international treaty specifically aimed at regulating the treatment of stateless persons. It shares the same origins as the 1951 Refugee Convention, as it was originally drafted as a Protocol supplementing it. When the Refugee Convention was eventually adopted, the Protocol was referred to a separate conference that transformed it into a self-standing convention. With its adoption, the refugee and the stateless person, who up to then had been treated without distinction, were now both accorded an independent definition and legal status.

According to the estimates of UNHCR, the UN’s Refugee Agency, at least 10 million people around the globe are stateless today. The causes are manifold and include dissolution and emergence of States, conflicting nationality laws, discrimination of ethnic or religious groups, and gender-based discrimination.

UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras, #152526

Article 16 states that marriage shall be entered into with the free consent of the spouses, but in practice, child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) is widespread and occurs in all regions of the world. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 650 million women alive today were married as children, and still every year at least 12 million girls are married before they reach the age of 18.

In September 2013, the Human Rights Council adopted the first-ever resolution on CEFM (A/HRC/RES/24/23). The draft was co-sponsored by a cross-regional group of over 100 States, including countries with high rates of child marriage. The resolution decided to “convene ... a panel discussion on preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage”, and requested that the Office of the High Commissioner prepare a report on preventing and eliminating the practice. This report was issued in April 2014 and was the first of its kind – analyzing and addressing the factors that lead to CEFM and recommending measures and strategies to prevent it.

UN Photo/Tobin Jones, #546718

Lands, territories and natural resources are profoundly important for indigenous peoples around the world and safeguard their survival as distinct peoples. They provide the basis for their existence and economic livelihood. Moreover, they are fundamental to their spiritual, cultural, and social identity. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples – takes into account this fundamental importance of lands, territories, and resources. These issues were subject to intense debate for more than two decades prior to the ratification of the Declaration.

In 1982, the Economic and Social Council established a Working Group on Indigenous Populations to develop a set of standards to protect indigenous peoples. It was in 1985 that the Working Group began preparing the Draft Declaration, but it was not until 1993 that it agreed on a final text. The Declaration was eventually adopted by the Human Rights Council in June 2006, and the General Assembly followed in September 2007. A majority of 144 States voted in favour, four against and eleven abstained, but since the Declaration’s adoption, all four countries that had been in opposition reversed their position and have expressed their support.

UN Photo/F Charton, #84115

While religion offers great potential for peace, challenges to religious liberty have been the source of great tension and conflict. The topic’s complexity, including the difficulty to define terms like “religion” and “belief”, is illustrated by the continuing struggle to protect freedom of religion or belief in the context of international human rights.

In Article 18 of the UDHR, the importance of freedom of religion or belief was recognized. A similar provision can be found in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, attempts to develop an enforceable, binding document specifically related to the freedom of religion or belief had until then been unsuccessful.

Progress was made when, after twenty years of intense discussions, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief in November 1981. Although it is non-binding, it constitutes the most important contemporary codification of the principles of freedom of religion and belief that has been issued by the UN thus far.

UN Photo/Martine Perret, #199859

Human rights are children’s rights and giving children the opportunity to express themselves supports them in claiming their rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) regards children as legal subjects who are entitled to human rights and fundamental freedoms. This was considered a progressive view at the time when the Convention was drawn up.

The CRC provides children with the right to be heard in all matters affecting them – a prerequisite for guaranteeing all their rights. The right to be heard and taken seriously constitutes one of the fundamental values of the CRC. It comprises various aspects: listening to children, informing them (and protecting them from harmful information), and involving them. Giving them a voice means empowering children and young people, resulting in strengthening their socioeconomic situation and social safety.

The UN’s focus on the topic of the rights of the child began in its earlier years. By resolution 1386 (XIV) of 20 November 1959, the General Assembly had adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The Convention was adopted in 1989 and entered into force the following year. It is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe, #739303

Current worldwide events provide evidence that the right to freedom of assembly and association continues to be under threat. These events have the potential to negatively impact the human rights of various groups, including private citizens, trade unions, migrant workers, and human rights defenders.

The Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly was first appointed in 2010. A series of mandated reports followed, highlighting the continued threats to peaceful assembly and association while developing best practices for the protection of those rights. The Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai’s 2012 report (A/HRC/20/27) for the first time “notes the increased use of the Internet, in particular social media, and other information and communication technology, as basic tools which enable individuals to organize peaceful assemblies”. The resolution that followed in the 21st session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/RES/21/16) was adopted by consensus in the same year. This was one of the first recognitions by the UN of the power of social media and how it could be used to the advantage of those protesting human rights violations around the world. For those prevented from gathering in person, virtual means of assembly and association have been increasingly used in recent years to facilitate expressions of political dissent and activism.

UN Photo/Basile Zoma, #454287

The UN has been involved with electoral activities since the 1960s, when the Trusteeship Council assisted with the observation and supervision of some 30 plebiscites, referenda, and elections in various regions of the world. By the end of the 1980s, the UN was engaged in a variety of electoral activities such as the organisation and conduct of elections, the supervision and control of elections, and the verification of electoral processes.

These activities, along with rising demand from Member States for technical assistance by the UN, led to the General Assembly’s introduction of resolution 46/137 on 17 December 1991 which recognised “that there is no single political system or electoral method that is equally suited to all nations and their people and that the efforts of the international community to enhance the effectiveness of the principle of periodic and genuine elections should not call into question each State’s sovereign right.”

The document also called for the UN to designate a senior official to act as a focal point for electoral assistance activities and recommended that an office be created to support this position in their functions. Since 1992, the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs has filled this role.

UN Photo/Marco Dormino, #771750