The UN Human Rights Office is organising a high-level event on December 11 and 12 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The event is the culmination of Human Rights 75 – a year-long initiative by the Office to reaffirm the values of the Universal Declaration and recommit to human rights as the pathway to address the challenges of today and the future.
“We are meeting at a sombre moment. Across the globe there are levels of violent conflict not seen since 1945. We are seeing deepening inequalities, increasing discrimination and hate speech, impunity, and growing divisions and polarization. And adding to all this, the triple planetary crisis of the climate emergency, pollution and loss of biodiversity,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Tuesday.
“This underscores all the more the need for us to take stock, learn lessons, and craft a vision for the future together based on human rights,” he said.
“The Universal Declaration provides a promise – that we are all born equal in dignity and rights – and a blueprint for action. This event is a moment of deep reflection to seek common solutions together, centred on human rights,” he stressed.
Read: UN warns that 2 boats adrift in the Andaman Sea with 400 Rohingya aboard desperately need rescue
Heads of states and governments, and other high-level state dignitaries will gather with human rights defenders, young people, civil society organisations, businesses, sportspeople, artists, economists, representatives from UN entities and regional organizations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Among the key moments on December 11, there will be two pledging sessions where states will announce tangible commitments to advance human rights protection.
In two segments entitled ‘Voices in defence of human rights,’ participants will share their testimonies and perspectives on the impact of the Universal Declaration.
Panel discussions will be held with experts looking into challenges and the way forward on the universality and indivisibility of human rights and how to strengthen the human rights system.
The opening ceremony on December 12 will involve a discussion with heads of states, moderated by the UN high commissioner for human rights.
This will be followed by four roundtables on pressing human rights issues and the future of human rights: peace and security; digital technologies; climate and the environment; and development and the economy.
The roundtables, with high-level representatives from states and other actors, have been guided by discussion papers on the need to generate fresh ideas on such fundamental issues.
The Geneva high-level event, which will be accessible with international sign language interpretation and real-time captioning, as well as simultaneous interpretation in the six UN official languages, will be connected online to regional hubs in Bangkok, Nairobi and Panama where related discussions and events are also being organised.
Read: Gwyn Lewis lauds invaluable contributions of all UN volunteers
The entire event will also be accessible through a virtual human rights centre that will enable up to 3,000 people to take part online.
To ensure further the global scope of the discussions, national and regional dialogues were held in the run-up to December – the latter in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Cairo, Brussels and Santiago.
In addition, a High-level event in Vienna in June marked the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and of the UN Human Rights Office.
December 10, 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of one of the world's most ground-breaking global pledges: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
This landmark document enshrines the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, according to the UN.
Read: UN warns that 2 boats adrift in the Andaman Sea with 400 Rohingya aboard desperately need rescue
The Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948 and set out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.