The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75: Our shared values and path to solutions

On 10 December 1948, a fledgling United Nations took a momentous step. In adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it laid down a promise of a world to be rebuilt—after the horrors of global war, the Holocaust, economic depression and the atomic bomb—on the firm foundations of our inherent rights.

While the community of States was fewer in number, the drafters of the Declaration came from every region and, in turn, drew on wisdom and experience across cultures and eras to set out our freedoms. The rights to live free from discrimination and from torture, the rights to education and to adequate food, and so much more.

The influence of the Declaration in the decades since has been remarkable, playing a unique role in strides forward on women’s equality; in progress on education and health; in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa; and, indeed, in the victories of independence over colonial rule. The Declaration also inspired a glorious flourishing of civil society, itself hugely instrumental in both developing and advancing the rights agenda. This landmark document is also the point of origin for our rich tapestry of international human rights treaties, laws, instruments and mechanisms.

Despite so much progress, we are still far from the world envisaged by the Declaration’s framers and find ourselves contending with a determined pushback on rights. It would be a mistake, though, to dismiss the Declaration as a relic from a more benign and optimistic time. Its drafters emerged from an era ravaged by vicious cycles of destruction, terror and poverty, and in the face of a deepening ideological divide, remained undaunted in laying down a map towards a world more peaceful and just, in recognition of our shared humanity and our equal worth.

Today, this map is more relevant than ever. As so horrifically illustrated by the unbearable suffering in recent weeks in Gaza and Israel, conflicts are raging at their highest level since 1945 with scant regard for the protection of civilians. We face skyrocketing inequalities, corrosive polarization within and between States, ongoing curbs on civic space and ungoverned acceleration in digital technology. All of these destabilizing and destructive trends fuel the triple planetary crisis, one that is truly existential in nature.

As we navigate these fractious and uncertain times, the Declaration’s enduring power lies in its promise of rights as solutions. Non-ideological and deeply rooted in the shared values of our “human family”, its principles can transcend geopolitical and social divides, drawing instead on our deepest reflexes—solidarity, empathy and connection. Comprehensive in its scope, it encourages solutions that are complementary—essential given the multitude of challenges we face. Its call for free and meaningful participation is the key to the broad engagement necessary for solutions to be both effective and legitimate.

Advancing the rights of every person, everywhere, is the only way to address the root causes of conflict. 

Human rights approaches are the only way to make development inclusive, participatory and sustainable; to shape laws that are just and, therefore, trusted to resolve disputes; to make our societies equitable; and to ensure accountability and promote reconciliation. Human rights are also the ultimate tool of prevention, a simple truth brought home to me repeatedly in my decades working with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on situations of failed prevention.

In a world changing at a frenetic pace, failure to uphold rights will not result in stasis. On the contrary, it will lead to escalating grievance, pain and violence, alongside a loss of our ability to work together to solve problems. The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Declaration is, therefore, a moment that calls for concerted action: first, through establishing a renewed worldwide commitment to the values embodied in the Declaration; second, by capitalizing on this momentum to drive transformative progress on rights, drawing on innovative approaches along with a willingness to interrogate the very way we think about the future landscape for rights.

With one quarter of humanity currently living in places affected by conflict, we risk a future that perpetuates these convulsive cycles of suffering and destruction, along with the prospect of declining respect for the laws of war—the very guarantors of our humanity, our collective red lines.

So much loss, so much pain that is all too preventable. Repression, injustice, discrimination, extreme inequality, lack of accountability—all seed the malign conditions from which violence erupts. It is clear that the path to enduring peace lies through human rights. Advancing the rights of every person, everywhere, is the only way to address the root causes of conflict. And this means all rights.

One of the priority areas for United Nations Human Rights is a significant step-up in our work on economic, social and cultural rights, which have been for too long artificially, and unhelpfully, sidelined in human rights discourse and action. The reality is that, today, most economies are human rights-free zones with disastrous outcomes for people and planet. Our concept of the Human Rights Economy advocates, instead, for economic, trade, industrial, social and environmental policies to be guided by human rights standards, with their success measured by the degree to which rights are enjoyed by everyone. This applies equally for business models, investment decisions and consumer choices.

This kind of fundamental shift has the potential to unlock progress on all rights; not least, because it encourages meaningful civic participation in decision-making, particularly for women and others routinely marginalized. This helps tackle the underlying causes of inequalities and grievances, rebuild trust in government and each other, and target policies to actual need.

We also urgently need to develop human rights guardrails for international financial and development institutions. Governments should not be corralled into choosing between investing in rights and repaying foreign debt. They should be able to ring-fence investments in measurable improvements in levels of respect for the rights, for example, to education and health, ahead of debt repayment.

Our planetary crisis is another area in which it is painfully evident that we need to shift course decisively and immediately. Otherwise, no one will escape the terrible consequences. In the meantime, those who have the least—and are least responsible—pay the heaviest cost, including with their lives.

Human rights, such as the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, offer a road map for preventing and remediating the harms caused by environmental crises in a more effective, inclusive and sustainable way. This includes ensuring that the transition away from fossil fuel dependency is a just one, placing the voices and needs of affected individuals and communities at the heart of policymaking.

Human rights also offer us a resilient pathway for responding to accelerating advances in digital technology. This is the case even in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), where extraordinary opportunities, including for the stalled 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sit alongside unprecedented risks that are far from theoretical.

Human rights are the golden thread that connects and informs every issue on the global agenda, as they do in our work within the United Nations.

We already see AI reinforcing bias in criminal justice systems, enabling mass surveillance, and fuelling polarization along with risks to elections via hate speech and disinformation proliferating online. Human rights standards direct us clearly towards the need for regulation that is supportive of innovation but strong on safeguards, from human rights risk assessment throughout the lifecycle of AI systems to independent oversight and access to remedy.

Technology, environment, inequality, peace and security—all of these will be at the forefront of the 2024 Summit of the Future. Human rights will be integral to this crucial effort to recast multilateralism for today’s demands and those yet to come. Human rights are the golden thread that connects and informs every issue on the global agenda, as they do in our work within the United Nations, from conflict prevention and peacekeeping to development, climate and good governance.

My Office will be feeding into the Summit through a Vision for Human Rights for the next quarter century, reflecting key insights and recommendations from our year-long Human Rights 75 initiative, which marks the Declaration’s anniversary. Alongside nurturing a diverse, global constituency, including youth, in support of human rights, this initiative has generated important pledges from States and others with the potential to deliver transformational change. These pledges will take centre stage at the initiative’s concluding High-Level Event on 11 and 12 December 2023, hosted in Geneva with participation in regional hubs and worldwide online.

This moment will be one, certainly, of deep reflection, but also, one of determination. At a time of perpetual crisis—when problems seem intractable and discord reigns—we must return to our core values, embodied in human rights, to show us the route towards a world more peaceful, sustainable and fair.

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