About Human Rights
What are human rights?
Going to school, finding a decent job, voting in elections: these are all examples of human rights in everyday life. Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings. They are universal and are inherent to us all, regardless of age, nationality, gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, disability, or any other status. Human rights range from the most fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to education, work, food, health, and liberty.
Where do human rights come from?
Human rights are legal obligations, they are an important part of the laws that govern our societies. At the global level, the foundation of all international human rights law is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the UDHR was the first legal document to set out the fundamental rights to be universally protected. The UDHR provides the principles and building blocks of current and future human rights conventions, treaties and other legal instruments.
