FROM the time you are born, you are already entitled to various lifelong rights. These include the right to life, liberty, education, comfortable living, and freedom of expression. In a nutshell, human rights are necessary to defend and uphold each person’s inherent value as a human being and to enable one to lead a dignified and honorable life.

However, there is a hard-fought history behind the rights everyone enjoys today. Although many countries have yet to win other social struggles, the United Nations took the first step in getting justice and equality for all.

Human Rights Day is celebrated around the world every December 10. And it’s not just any ordinary day. 

American political figure Eleanor Roosevelt, human rights activist Pen-Chun Chang, and Lebanese diplomat Charles Malik formed a committee in February 1947 to begin drafting the International Bill of Human Rights. John Humphrey, Director of the UN Secretariat’s Division for Human Rights, was tasked with creating a preliminary draft with assistance from the UN Secretariat. 

The drafting committee was expanded as a result of a letter from the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights to the President of the Economic and Social Council on March 27, 1947. At that time, it was made up of officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Chile, France, Lebanon, the Commission on Human Rights, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, according to the UN.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10, 1948 in the aftermath of the Second World War. It said that in the wake of that conflict and with the establishment of the United Nations, the international community pledged not to ever allow crimes committed during the war to occur again.

The UDHR is a manifesto that serves as the universal blueprint for liberty and equality, defending the rights of all people across the globe.

It has 30 articles and sets out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on December 4, 1950, inviting all UN member states and other institutions to mark December 10 of each year as “Human Rights Day,” to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Currently, the UN’s membership has grown from the original 51 member states in 1945 to the current 193 member states.

According to the rights group Amnesty International, the adoption of the UDHR acknowledged that human rights are the cornerstone of liberty, justice, and peace.

Human Rights Day 2022

Every year, the UN chooses a theme for Human Rights Day to emphasize issues that need global attention. For this year, the council announced the theme “Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All.”

“It is absolutely clear that we need to regain the universality of human rights, the indivisibility of human rights, and we need to find a new energy that motivates young people around the world,” Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Human rights have become more recognized and guaranteed worldwide since the adoption of UDHR. It has since served as the framework for an evolving human rights protection system that now covers marginalized communities such as individuals with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and migrants, the UN said.