(In 2023, we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – Editor)
Anand IMS, Varansi
The International Human Rights Day is observed by the world community every year on 10 December. This is in commemoration of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 Dec. 1948.
There are 30 human rights assured by this declaration. The salient ones among them are:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
The right to life, liberty and security of person.
No one shall be held in slavery in any form.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to degrading punishment.
The right to protection from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
The right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
The right to privacy, family, home, honour and reputation.
The rights to a nationality, freedom of movement and residence within the country, to seek in other countries asylum from persecution and the the right to leave any country and to return.
The right to marry, to found a family and to own property.
The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change one’s religion, to teach, practice, worship and observance of one’s religion.
The right to freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
The right to take part in the government, to equal access to public service.
The right to social security, economic, social and cultural rights.
The right to work, to just and favourable conditions of work, protection against unemployment, to form and to join trade unions.
The right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
The right to a standard of living, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, motherhood and childhood.
The right to free elementary education and access to technical and higher education.
Although the Declaration is not a binding document, it inspired more than 60 human rights instruments which together constitute an international standard of human rights.
The Theme for Human Rights Day 2023 is Freedom, Equality and Justice for all. These three values are very relevant for the present time.
In India, where we experience shrinking of democratic space, restrictions on voices of dissent, discrimination based on caste and religion, and denial of justice to the poor and suffering people, these aforementioned human rights are blatantly violated.
Every human person who has a conscience within her/him has to awaken the self and awaken others too and assure that every one around experiences freedom, equality and justice.
On World Human Rights Day the civil society organizations, social activists and awakened citizens need to come together to safeguard the human rights and to save democracy.
“A right delayed is a right denied.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
