64th Anniversary of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - An Urgent Call For Constructive Changes, 10th December 2012

The GLOBAL RACE EQUALITY ACTION TRUST GREAT TRUST
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Date: 10th December, 2012/ For IMMEDIATE DISPATCH
Joint Media Release On World Human Rights Day 10th December 2012 Great Trust, the Council for Afrika International & the Afrika Liberation Society Unprecedented Widespread Human Rights Abuses Intolerable Call For 21st Century Race Equality and Human Rights Paradigms, Approaches, Interventions & Models
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On the 64th Anniversary of the Declaration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR], the GREAT Consortium, consisting of the GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society calls for a New Era of 21st Century Sustainable Holistic Approach to Race Equality, Fundamental Human Rights, Global Peace, Stability and Security to stem the tide of unprecedented widespread human suffering in the world. From noticeable empirical evidence, pre-existing orthodox human rights institutions, concepts, schools of thought, models and approaches have either become outmoded and, or tragically failed to effectively promote, guarantee and protect the Fundamental Human Rights and Needs of Planets Earths 7 billion Global Citizens. The evidence is an indictment of Global, Regional and
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The COUNCIL FOR AFRIKA INTERNATIONAL

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The AFRIKA LIBERATION SOCIETY

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National Leadership and suggests systemic incompetence, incapacity, abilities and lack of knowhow to deliver to the fundamental life and dignity requirements for the Peoples of the World across all Continents. Amongst others, the global economic recession and its unpalatable, profound, ramifications for the Majority Global Citizens who are being coerced by governments to bear the brunt speak to this unfortunate and intolerable assault on Fundamental Human Rights. The world is going through unprecedented, precarious times where the ineffective policy, strategic, operational and manifesto choices and preferences of Global, Regional and National Leadership have climaxed into a world economic meltdown to which they have no credible sustainable paradigms as yet, deepening the already dire implications for Majority Global Citizens through severe compromise of Inalienable Fundamental Human Rights, while the perpetrators and ruling elite who were and still dominate politics, hold on to their privileges and rights. While failed institutions get bankrolled through bailouts, the devastating and debilitating fangs of austerity punish Citizens who had no role in the habitual leadership incompetence that have culminated in the worlds severest economic collapse, after promises of an end to boom and bust economics. Even in these harsh times of unprecedented, eroded Fundamental Human Rights, providers of essential services have free hand in even further punishing Citizens through astronomical price hikes for gas and fuel, food, housing, education, health, transport, clothing and other utilities such as telephone and internet services. To worsen the failure of governments to deliver Full Employment, mass unemployment has been unleashed, wages have been frozen and the value of wages diminishes in real terms and the projections are that these injustices are here to stay. It borders on insanity, obscenity but patently
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immoral to be keen to socialise financial loss, but enabling the exclusive concentration and monopoly where there are profits. While pension pots are endangered, loose value and deplete, Multinationals pile-up super-profits through exploitation of tax loopholes, which though legal because of weak legislative outcomes by politicians, are indeed unethical in the present circumstances. Citizenship protests in exercise of democratic rights across the world to defend Fundamental Human Rights are either ignored or brutally suppressed by governments, sometimes leading to thousands of lives lost, instead of active engagement of dialogue. As a matter of fact, there is hardly any dignity left in the lives of Majority Global Citizens. In the abundance of the global wealth, greed, mismanagement, incompetence and lack of paradigmatic effectiveness unleash incredible havoc on the Inalienable Fundamental Human Rights of 99% of the People of the Planet. The evidence points to historic crises of Global Leadership which must be resolved through Fundamental Human Rights-centred Creative, Innovative Paradigms by Special Emergency Task Forces; not comical, insensitive and negligent dress-rehearsals of failed, tried and tested orthodox interventions which only prolong severe suffering by the Majority Peoples of the World. Dr Koku Adomdza, President of the GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society reflects on the significance of the United Nations World Human Rights Day, The problem we have is that on the 46th Anniversary of the UDHR, the perceptions of Global Leadership including the United Nations on the practicalities of Fundamental Human Rights for the majority of the 7 billion Global Citizens are light years apart, indicating profound representational and advocacydeficit. The reality is that the Majority of the Worlds Citizens survive by threadbare Fundamental Human Rights and Needs, engulfed in widespread impoverishment and
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lack of the barest means of subsistence and one of the worst economic recessions in history has certainly exacerbated conditions and corroded any hint of the Inalienability of preciously essential Fundamental Human Rights. Instead of the United Nations and Global Leadership calling a spade for what it is and pronounce a Global Fundamental Human Rights State of Emergency, they keep skirting around the issue in diplomatic claptrap, while people battle with the harshest of economic circumstances, indignities and many more die in droves. In contradiction, despite and in spite of the existing paraphernalia of Fundamental Human Rights, the world witnesses increase in bigotry and extremism, abuse of political power and rights at the highest levels including the indiscriminate unleash of mass bloodshed, football and tennis racism is at record high, acute afrophobia and anti-Africanism have become almost conventionalised and the Larger African Holocaust is evidently even more entrenched through economic terrorism, genocide and skyrocketing illicit capital-flight out of Africa and the situation is getting worse, except camouflaged by bankrupt doctrines of growth indices against the backdrop of steel resistance to full reparations necessary to atone for several centuries of Crimes Against Humanity unleashed upon the African Peoples. It must be noted that Fundamental Human Rights did not originate from the UNs Universal Declaration in 1948 as is often misunderstood. All that the undoubted historic document did was to confirm succinctly the Inalienable Rights of Human Beings once they are formed in the womb. The central purchase of Fundamental Human Rights is that they are sacred, divinely-given and predate the 1948 UN Declaration which takes out the spiritual essence of Fundamental Human Rights. One notes that no African was a member of the drafting panel and the United Nations continue to be one of the led institutionally racist agencies in the world given its
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resistance to include the African Union as a Permanent Member with Veto Rights on its Security Council. And yet for convenience, considerable efforts have been invested into secularising an inherently and intrinsically-divine imperative of Creation, without which Human Beings cease to exist. Within that context, reflections on the 46th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] must not be driven by the limited, weak and uninspiring achievements made, or drumming-up the same as the UN often does, but in an impact assessment of journey-travelled towards a grand vision, destination of the manifestation of the Fundamental Human Rights for Every Global Citizen on Planet Earth. Subjected to a robust impact assessment, the UN and Global Leadership have significantly and collectively failed to deliver effective advocacy, guarantee or convey needed hope in the materialisation of Fundamental Human Rights for Majority Global Citizens any time soon. The reality on the ground is that, it is only the Fundamental Human Rights of a tiny minority of Global Citizens that have been met. This is scandalous and so the response from the UN Leadership and Global Leadership is disgraceful, pitiful and smacking of grotesque incompetence. The absence and, or denial of Fundamental Human Rights entail[s] harsh realities, hard graft, diminishes the human person from their humanness and require serious redress, in contrast to the observable nonchalant, orthodox approach from the UN, Regional, National and Global Leadership. Pause for a moment and take in the plight and blight of Majority Global Citizens across all five continents of the world, or through various media which indicate mass suffering by swathes and swathes of people, leading unbearably harsh lives. Contrast that unpleasant reality with the luxurious lifestyles of UN Leadership, Global, Regional and National Leadership who are meant to be SERVING THE PEOPLE and anyone
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with a hint of conscience would shriek and shiver in their skin, bones and marrow. The unravelling spectacle is diabolical, unsustainable, unhealthy, risky requiring rapid effective remedy through Creative, Innovative, Ethical, Human Rights-oriented and inspired Paradigms. Vital and invaluable time is running out and the world cannot continue this way in the medium to the long-term without the most serious repercussions for Collective Global Peace, Stability and Security. From the rich countries of the Global North to the poorest country in the Global South, there is no political regime or leadership that could attest to the manifest guarantee of Inalienable Fundamental Human Rights for Majority Citizens beyond the Ruling Elites. And yet the earth is endowed with more than enough wealth and resources to guarantee the Fundamental Human Rights, barring the vagaries of societal systems that are founded and thrive on compulsive greed. That is why the GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society are calling for completely New Era Paradigms, Schools of Thought, Interventions and Models commensurate with the degree of the Global Fundamental Human Rights crises on the 46th Anniversary of the UDHR. The UN and Global Leadership must take undergo a drastic mind-set and paradigmatic transformation and swap their realities with those of the Global Majority Citizens whose Fundamental Human Rights are non-existent, then begin to identify with their situations before the UDHR losses complete relevance and resonance across the world. Already, they are being seen as parasitic or in great measure as nonexistent. You do a survey amongst some of the most deprived communities in the world about the UDHR and the claim that it is the most translated document in the world rings plain hollow.
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Take for instance the theme of World Human Rights Day 2012 which is on the right to freedom of expression, association etc. These are relevant; but what do these rights mean to those whose economic rights are severely eroded? To have the strength to exercise these civil and political rights - speak, demonstrate, self-advocate, vote, human beings require the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter which contemporary Majority Global Citizens find extremely challenging to meet. This consequences of this ruthless global economic recession, which was brought on by the mismanagement and bad stewardship of Global and National Leadership where applicable, and which the Majority Global Citizens did not cause, are having to be borne disproportionately by the latter in completely unethical circumstances through tried, tested and failed orthodox interventions and models; while the culprits continue to enjoy their privileges for failure and compromising he Fundamental Human Rights of innocent Majority Citizens. Instead of the UN Leadership choosing a theme befitting and synergistic to predominant fundamental Human Rights crises, they have chosen a presently noncentral priority which suggest cavalier, insensitivity and out-of-touch disposition and failed human rights regime. One of the fundamental flaws of orthodox but decadent human rights paradigms of the UN and Global Leadership is the unsavoury, distasteful, unappealing and rather perilous Selective Human Rights Approach, which entails blow-back winds with significant undermining potential for existing regime. It is not difficult to discern that political, civil rights are prioritised above the Fundamental Human Rights of Economics Wellbeing and Entitlements from which leadership are keen to shore aside disingenuously. We believe strongly that Economic Rights are central to all the other strands of rights and that the UN, Global, Regional and National Leadership must clean their acts up and meet this arguably most relevant and Mother of all
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Fundamental Human Rights. In so advocating, we are mindful of the debate of the hierarchy of Fundamental Human Rights. In close toe, we emphasize the significance of the inseparability and holistic character of the main strands of Fundamental Human Rights Economic, Political, Civil, Social and Cultural and condemn the opportunistic and manipulative tendencies that promote Parochial Convenience Human Rights. As such, the GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society are campaigning for a managed replacement, abandonment of the status quo with fit-for-purpose 21st Century Creative, Innovative and Sustainable Race Equality and Human Rights Approach and Regime, performance managed through periodic impact assessments and robust Action Plans. We believe that the materialisation of fundamental Human Rights for all Global Citizens is possible, attainable in the 21st Century for Global Peace, Security, Stability and Civilisation. Moving forwards the GREAT Consortium, consisting GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society re-echoes the following responsibilities of Leadership and Ruling Elites across the World. Our wish in this period of Annual Goodwill is that Contemporary Leaderships avail themselves of the historic opportunity presented by previous failures to be the ones to enter the history books as the Guarantors and Achievers of Fundamental Human Rights for All Global Citizens. This would not only lift the unpleasant burden of severe fundamental human rights erosion off Global Citizens across all 5 Continents but also set the minimum standards to be built upon by Leaders of the Future.
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Urgent Recognition and Clarity about the Inseparability and Holistic Nature of Fundamental Human Rights versus Flawed Selective Human Rights i.e. Parochial Convenience Human Rights Urgency to Guarantee Economic Rights as central to all other Fundamental Human Rights Strands in the light of the on-going, devastating, prolonged, historic Global Economic Recession by Leadership Urgency to Guarantee Political Rights, amidst high-profile political scandals and the implosion of democracy and oppressive regimes from Athens to Rome and across the Continents by Leadership Urgency to Guarantee Social Rights, cumulatively consequent to the fall-outs from Political and Economic tragedies by Leadership Urgency to Guarantee Civil Rights, cumulatively consequent to the fall-out from Political, Economic and Social Rights by Leadership Urgency to Guarantee Cultural Rights, cumulatively consequent to the fall-outs from Political, Economic, Social and Civil Rights by Leadership
Finally, but not the least, we draw attention to the Urgency to Guarantee Holistic Fundamental Human Rights-driven Peace leading to avoidable hardship, instability, chaos, insecurity for the Worlds Majority 7 Billion Citizens, while Global Leadership hold on tight to and enjoy their rights, privileges, positions, authority and powers. There is a gapping, unhealthy dichotomy between the crushing erosion of the Fundamental Human Rights of Majority Global Citizens and the realised exclusive
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privileges of Global Leadership to which the latter have demonstrated acute insensitivity and lack of passion to positively and constructively change to rectify for the Collective Peace. In consequence, the world witnesses the mushrooming of countless theatres and flashpoints of war that exerts extensive destruction to human, social and infrastructural capital and tipping the world to a plunge into a bottomless pit of anarchy, violence and even worse human suffering.
Millennium Fundamental Human Rights Challenge, Goals, Needs & Pledge To facilitate, the GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society calls on this 46th Anniversary of the UDHR for a Millennium Fundamental Human Rights Challenge, Goals, Needs & Pledge by Global, Regional and National Leadership including the Bretton Woods Institutions of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the G8/G21 Countries, the African Union, Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation of American States, the European Union, Gulf Consultative States, the Arab League, the Commonwealth, the ACPA, ECOWAS and similar to rethink strategies for the rapid Manifestation of Fundamental Human Rights and Needs for All Global Citizens in the shortest possible time. The current cataclysmic world economic recession provides opportunities for Fresh, Lateral and Out-of-the-Box Thinking, to advance Global Civilisation to a degree and credibility, that for the first time in human history, Guarantees and Materialises the Fundamental Human Rights and Needs for All Global Citizens, eradicating avoidable mass misery, though not the least the proportionate, radical reconfiguring of existing
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unethical priorities for Global Wealth Expenditure and launch of Full Employment Programmes. We believe that with efficient Stewardship, Leadership and Competent Ethical Interventions, it is possible for All Human Beings to be able to enjoy Basic Needs and Fundamental Human Rights. The status quo sucks, has fallen apart and can no longer hold and must be discharged for the Restoration of Human Dignity, Hope, Inclusive Global Peace, Stability and Security. Key Constituents of the Millennium Fundamental Human Rights Challenge, Goals, Needs & Pledge includes: Fundamental Human Rights Consciousness Centred-Life Full Employment Food Housing Education Health Transport Utilities [Gas, Electricity, Water, Sanitation] Earth & Climate Rights
Ps] Each of the Seven Constituents entail the 4 Qualities of Challenge, Goal, Need & Pledge. Given the understandable dwindled confidence, trust, credibility of politics, politicians and global leadership by the Majority Global Citizens, and the Inalienable Divinecharacter of Fundamental Human Rights, we believe that the Millennium
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Fundamental Human Rights Goals, Needs & Pledge is a viable proposition to prevent human civilisation from falling off the cliff-edge. In the light of the foregoing mirroring of the tragic demise of Fundamental Human Rights on this 64th Anniversary of the UNs Universal Declaration of Fundamental Human Right, The GREAT Consortium the GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society makes an urgent call on behalf of the Peoples of the World for Global Leadership charged with the guarantee and protection of human rights to take managed steps to abandon the unworkable oppressive, orthodox Convenience Human Rights and embrace a 21st Century New Era of Holistic Human Rights and Inclusive Peace Paradigms, Schools of Thought, Models and Approaches with the fiercest urgency of time.
KokuAdomdza Koku Adomdza FRSA, MIOD, DPMSA President GREAT Trust, Council for Afrika International, Afrika Liberation Society On behalf of the Trustee Board, International Advisory Council and all Strategic Partners The GREAT Trust, The Council for Afrika International, and The Afrika Liberation Society
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Notes to Editors
For further information, please liaise through the following channels Websites: www.thegreattrust.org www.thecouncilforafrika.org www.theafricaliberation.org Emails: greatinformation@groupmail.com afrikainformation@groupmail.com afrikaliberationinfo@groupmail.com Phone/Fax: + 44 [0] 7092859885 7092859886 7092987012
The Global Race Equality Action Trust GREAT Trust, The Council for Afrika International and the Afrika Liberation Society are 21st Century pioneering, prominent, positively change-driven, ethics-inspired, race equality, human rights think and doing tanks at the cutting-edge of promoting Creative and Innovation Schools of Thought, Paradigms, Approaches and Models for the restoration and manifestation of Justice, Fundamental Human and Global Citizenship Rights for Sustainable Holistic Inclusive Societal Stability, Peace, Security and a More Perfect Human Civilisation. The GREAT Trust is a 21st Century think and doing tank that works with the fierce urgency of time for Global Racial Equality and the Restoration of Fundamental Human, Global Citizenship Rights, Dignity and Respect for All Global Citizens, the demise of bigotry to Liberate the Victims and Rehabilitate the Perpetrators through Creative, Innovative Paradigms, Schools of Thought, Approaches and Models towards Sustainable Societal and Global Peace, Stability and Security. The Council for Afrika International is a 21st Century think and doing tank that promotes Racial, Ethnic and African Equality for the annihilation of the scourges of Afrophobia, Anti-Africanism, the Larger
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African Holocaust and the Restoration of Comprehensive Justice, Fundamental Human and Global Citizenship Rights to Africans and the Sovereignty of the African Continent through Creative, Innovative Paradigms, Schools of Thought, Approaches and Models for Sustainable Societal and Global Peace, Stability and Security. The Afrika Liberation Society is a 21st Century think and doing tank that seeks to facilitate the rapid DeNeoColonisation, the Total Liberation and Restoration of Holistic Justice to the African Continent, the African Peoples, the demise of Dependency Phenomenon and the African Economic Conundrum Creative, Innovative Paradigms, Schools of Thought, Approaches and Models for Sustainable Societal and Global Peace, Stability and Security.
Background to United Nations Human Rights Day and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR]
10th December, Human Rights Day, every year, presents an opportunity, to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere. For Human Rights Day 2012, the United Nations spotlight is on the rights of all people women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.
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These human rights the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, to peaceful assembly and association, and to take part in government (articles 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) have been at the centre of the historic
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changes in the Arab world over the past two years, in which millions have taken to the streets to demand change. In other parts of the world, the 99% made their voices heard through the global Occupy movement protesting economic, political and social inequality. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted on 10 December 1948. The date has since served to mark Human Rights Day worldwide. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, as the main UN rights official, and her Office play a major role in coordinating efforts for the yearly observance of Human Rights Day. The UDHR: the foremost statement of the rights and freedoms of all human beings The Declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, consists of a preamble and 30 articles, setting out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all men and women, everywhere in the world, are entitled, without any distinction. The Declaration was drafted by representatives of all regions and legal traditions. It has over time been accepted as a contract between governments and their peoples. Virtually all states have accepted it. The Declaration has also served as the foundation for an expanding system of human rights protection that today focuses also on vulnerable groups such as disabled persons, indigenous peoples and migrant workers. The Most Universal Document in the World The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has been awarded the Guinness World Record for having collected, translated and disseminated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into more than 380 languages and dialects: from Abkhaz to Zulu. The Universal Declaration is thus the most translated document - indeed, the most "universal" one in the world.
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's Message 10th December 2012

Everyone has the right to be heard and to shape the decisions that affect their community. This right is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and fully integrated in international law, especially in article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Over the past century, we have made undeniable progress along the path of inclusion. Yet far too many groups and individuals face far too many obstacles. Women have the right to vote almost everywhere, but remain hugely under-represented in parliaments and peace processes, in senior government posts and corporate boardrooms, and in other decision-making positions. Indigenous people frequently face discrimination that denies them the opportunity to make full use of their guaranteed rights or fails to take account of their circumstances. Religious and ethnic minorities as well as people with disabilities or those with a different sexual orientation or political opinion are often hampered from taking part in key institutions and processes. Institutions and public discourse need to represent societies in all their diversity. More generally, in several parts of the world, we have seen alarming threats to hardwon gains in democratic governance. In some countries, civil society groups face growing pressures and restrictions. Legislation has been introduced specifically targeting civil society organizations and making it almost impossible for them to operate. Champions of democracy have encountered new confrontational measures. We should all be troubled by such backsliding.
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Even in societies with a good track record, there is room for improvement. No country has succeeded in ensuring that all its inhabitants are able to participate fully in public affairs, including the right to be elected to public office and to have equal access to public services. Enacting new rights or removing unjust laws is not always sufficient. Too often, discrimination persists in practice, creating barriers and mindsets that can be hard to overcome. Vibrant civil society groups are among the keys to the well-being and functioning of any nation, and the United Nations deplores measures taken to suppress them. That is why, on this Human Right Day, the United Nations is highlighting the right to participate and the associated rights that make it possible freedom of expression and opinion, and peaceful assembly and association. International law is clear: No matter who you are, or where you live, your voice counts. On this Day, let us unite to defend your right to make it heard. Ban Ki-moon
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 10th December 1948
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Preamble
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Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
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Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society,
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keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. 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. Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
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Article 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11. (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. Article 12.
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No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 14. (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 15. (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. Article 16. (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
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Article 17. (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19. 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 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 21. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Article 22.
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Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 23. (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. Article 26.
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(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Article 27. (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. Article 28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. Article 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
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(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 30. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
History of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Document

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was the result of the experience of the Second World War. With the end of that war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international community vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of that conflict happen again. World leaders decided to complement the UN Charter with a road map to guarantee the rights of every individual everywhere. The document they considered, and which would later become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was taken up at the first session of the General Assembly in 1946.
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The Assembly reviewed this draft Declaration on Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms and transmitted it to the Economic and Social Council "for reference to the Commission on Human Rights for consideration . . . in its preparation of an international bill of rights." The Commission, at its first session early in 1947, authorized its members to formulate what it termed "a preliminary draft International Bill of Human Rights". Later the work was taken over by a formal drafting committee, consisting of members of the Commission from eight States, selected with due regard for geographical distribution. In 1950, on the second anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, students at the UN International Nursery School in New York viewed a poster of the historic document. After adopting it on December 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly had called upon all Member States to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." The Commission on Human Rights was made up of 18 members from various political, cultural and religious backgrounds. Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, chaired the UDHR drafting committee. With her were Ren Cassin of France, who composed the first draft of the Declaration, the Committee Rapporteur Charles Malik of Lebanon, Vice-Chairman Peng Chung Chang of China, and John Humphrey of Canada, Director of the UNs Human Rights Division, who prepared the Declarations blueprint. But Mrs. Roosevelt was recognized as the driving force for the Declarations adoption.
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The Commission met for the first time in 1947. In her memoirs, Eleanor Roosevelt recalled: Dr. Chang was a pluralist and held forth in charming fashion on the proposition that there is more than one kind of ultimate reality. The Declaration, he said, should reflect more than simply Werstern ideas and Dr. Humphrey would have to be eclectic in his approach. His remark, though addressed to Dr. Humprhey, was really directed at Dr. Malik, from whom it drew a prompt retort as he expounded at some length the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Dr. Humphrey joined enthusiastically in the discussion, and I remember that at one point Dr. Chang suggested that the Secretariat might well spend a few months studying the fundamentals of Confucianism! The final draft by Cassin was handed to the Commission on Human Rights, which was being held in Geneva. The draft declaration sent out to all UN member States for comments became known as the Geneva draft. The first draft of the Declaration was proposed in September 1948 with over 50 Member States participating in the final drafting. By its resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948, the General Assembly, meeting in Paris, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with eight nations abstaining from the vote but none dissenting. Hernn Santa Cruz of Chile, member of the drafting sub-Committee, wrote: I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existingwhich gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop ones personality. In the Great Hallthere was an atmosphere of genuine solidarity and brotherhood among men and women from all latitudes, the like of which I have not seen again in any international setting.
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The entire text of the UDHR was composed in less than two years. At a time when the world was divided into Eastern and Western blocks, finding a common ground on what should make the essence of the document proved to be a colossal task.
The Drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Document
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The Drafting Committee
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Top row, from left: Dr. Charles Malik (Lebanon)
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Alexandre Bogomolov (USSR) Dr. Peng-chun Chang (China) Middle row, from left: Ren Cassin (France) Eleanor Roosevelt (US) Charles Dukes (United Kingdom) Bottom row, from left: William Hodgson (Australia) Hernan Santa Cruz (Chile) John P. Humphrey (Canada)
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64th Anniversary of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - An Urgent Call For Constructive Changes, 10th December 2012

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The GLOBAL RACE EQUALITY ACTION TRUST GREAT TRUST

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The AFRIKA LIBERATION SOCIETY

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's Message 10th December 2012

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