On December 10 of each year, the world celebrates the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Since 1948, this important document has become the parent document for dozens of treaties, conventions and declarations that protect human dignity as a matter of rights and legal obligations. Human rights have now become a household concept, and central to political discourse. We may even claim that that the moral legitimacy of governments, domestically and internationally, depends in large part on its success in protecting and promoting human rights.
The global theme for this year’s celebration is: Embrace Diversity, End Discrimination. Indeed, one of the fundamental principles of the UDHR is its absolute prohibition of discrimination on any basis: age, conscience, religion, sex, ethnicity, national or social origin, political opinion, language or any other distinction. Discrimination is the expression of the long-discredited belief that all people are not born free and equal, that some people are somehow less “human” than others. These are the attitudes that lead to dehumanization, racism and consequently conflict and violence.
Source: The Daily Star
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