Human Rights Day is observed annually on December 10. It marks the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This milestone document proclaimed rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status. For instance:
- 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 1). 1
- Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancements and its benefits (Article 27).
- Everyone has the right to education. It shall be free, at least in elementary and fundamental stages (Article 26).
- Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (Article 16)
- Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment (Article 23).
- 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 19).
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1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights uses the gendered language of 'brotherhood, man, and mankind' in many places, which was common usage in 1948. The declaration has never been amended, yet except for the gendered language, it remains a remarkably up to date and forward-looking document in 2017.