75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: what has it achieved?

Seventy-five years ago on Sunday, the UN General Assembly, meeting in Paris, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, laying one of the foundations for the international order that emerged after the horrors of World War II.

The declaration was declared “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.” In practice, this has not always turned out to be the case in the following decades.

What has it achieved?

The Declaration is not a treaty and is not legally binding in itself, but the principles it sets out have been incorporated into the laws of many countries and are seen as the basis for international human rights law.

“It inspired the decolonization movement, it inspired the anti-apartheid movement and it inspired freedom fighters around the world, whether it's gender issues, whether it's LGBTIQ+ issues, whether it's racism,” says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. said Wednesday. “If we didn't have that, we would actually be in a more serious situation, because then you would have different standards, and let's also be very clear: it is the universal standard.”

What is the situation now?

The 75th anniversary comes as human rights are being tested in the war between Israel and Hamas, Russia's war in Ukraine, internal conflicts in Myanmar and Sudan, and in many other places and situations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Universal Declaration has been “too often misused and abused.” “It is exploited for political gain and it is often ignored by the same people,” he said.