BMJ No 7120 Volume 315 Education and debate Saturday 29 November 1997
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations
adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Following this historic act, the Assembly called on all member
countries to publicise the text of the Declaration and to cause it to
be disseminated, displayed, read, and expounded principally in schools
and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the
political status of countries or territories.
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal
in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and
should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights
and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any
kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political, or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the
political, jurisdictional, or international status of the country or
territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust,
non-self governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty,
and security of person.
Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or
servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their
forms.
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or
to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7
All are equal before the law and are
entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All
are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in
violation of this declaration and against any incitement to such
discrimination.
Article 8
Everyone has the right to an effective
remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the
fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
arrest, detention, or exile.
Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to
a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in
the determination of rights and obligations and of any criminal charge
against him.
Article 11
(1) Everyone charged with a penal
offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the
guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account
of any or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under
national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor
shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at
the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to
attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his
own, and to return to his country.
Article 14
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and
to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions
genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to
the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15
(1) Everyone has the right to a
nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor
denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16
(1) Men and women of full age, without
any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to
marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to
marriage, during marriage, and its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full
consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of
society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.
Article 17
(1) Everyone has the right to own
property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to
change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and, in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21
(1) Everyone has the right to take part
in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen
representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in
his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of
government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine
elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and be held by
secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22
Everyone, as a member of society, has
the right to social security and is entitled to realisation, through
national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with
the organisation and resources of each state, of the economic, social,
and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality.
Article 23
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to
free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work
and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal
pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable
remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of
human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social
protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for
the protection of his interests.
Article 24
Everyone has the right to rest and
leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic
holidays with pay.
Article 25
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard
of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and of his
family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack
of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and
assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall
enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26
(1) Everyone has the right to education.
Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental
stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and
professional education shall be made generally available and higher
education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the
human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance,
and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of
peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education
that shall be given to their children.
Article 27
(1) Everyone has the right freely to
participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts
and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral
and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or
artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28
Everyone is entitled to a social and
international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this
declaration can be fully realised.
Article 29
(1) Everyone has duties to the community
in which alone the free and full development of his personality is
possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be
subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for
the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and
freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality,
public order, and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised
contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30
Nothing in this declaration may be
interpreted as implying for any state, group, or person any right to
engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction
of any of the rights and freedoms set forth
herein.
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