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.

 

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.

 

3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

 

4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

 

5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

 

6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

 

10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

 

11. 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.

 

12. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act 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.

 

13. 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.

 

14. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

 

15. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

 

16. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

 

17. 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.

 

18. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

 

19. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

 

20. 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 at its dissolution.

 

21. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

 

22. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

 

23. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

 

24. 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.

 

25. 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

 

26. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

 

27. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

 

28. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

 

29. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

 

30. 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 shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

 

31. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

 

32. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

 

33. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

 

34. 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.

 

35. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

 

36. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

 

37. 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.

 

38. 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.

 

39. 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.

 

40. 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.

 

41. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

 

42. 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.

 

43. 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.

 

44. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

 

45. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

 

46. 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.

 

47. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

 

48. 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.

 

49. It was never the people who complained of the universality of human rights, nor did the people consider human rights as a Western or Northern imposition. It was often their leaders who did so.

 

50. I have cherished the ideal a democratic and free society... it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

 

51. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.

 

52. It has long been recognized that an essential element in protecting human rights was a widespread knowledge among the population of what their rights are and how they can be defended.

 

53. When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a Communist.

 

54. Although we are in different boats you in your boat and we in our canoe we share the same river of life.

 

55. We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.

 

56. Physical violence endured by women migrant workers reportedly ranges from sexual harassment to kicking, beating, slapping, punching and hair-pulling to rape and sexual assualt, sometimes resulting in death.

 

57. The human rights we are to discuss here at Vienna are...the quintessential values through which we affirm together that we are a single human community.

 

58. The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights.That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.

 

59. The connection between women's human rights, gender equality, socioeconomic development and peace is increasingly apparent.

 

60. Women's empowerment is intertwined with respect for human rights.

 

61. The evolution of the human rights movement clearly illustrates humanity's ongoing struggle toward creating a better world

 

62. Human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity. On this International Human Rights Day, let us continue to work together to develop and nurture in future generations a culture of human rights, to promote freedom, security and peace in all nations.

 

63. The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights.That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.

 

64. It was never the people who complained of the universality of human rights, nor did the people consider human rights as a Western or Northern imposition. It was often their leaders who did so

 

65. The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.

 

66. Silence never won rights.  They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below

 

67. So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.

 

68. Through electing officials that will protect the Constitution and commit themselves to the rights of the people and the health of the nation, we will be able to ensure that no group of ideologues and no private sector institution can coopt our rights, take us into senseless wars and steal the nation from its people.

 

69. A century that began with children having virtually no rights is ending with children having the most powerful legal instrument that not only recognizes but protects their human rights.

 

70. The Convention is not only a visionary document. We are reminded daily that it is an agreement that works – and its utility can be seen in the everyday use to which I have seen it increasingly being put by country after country, in policy, in practice and in law.

 

71. Those who today still feel a sense of impotence can do something: they can support Amnesty International. They can help it to stand up for freedom and justice.

 

72. Torture is banned but in two-thirds of the world's countries it is still being committed in secret. Too many governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murder or "disappearance" to be carried out by their officials with impunity.

 

73. It's the publicity function of Amnesty that I think has made its name so widely known, not only to readers in the world, but to governments - and that's what matters.

 

74. Open your newspaper - any day of the week - and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government.

 

75. The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who "disappeared". That's what the candle is for.

 

76. Once the concentration camps and the hell-holes of the world were in darkness. Now they are lit by the light of the Amnesty candle; the candle in barbed wire. When I first lit the Amnesty candle, I had in mind the old Chinese proverb: 'Better light a candle than curse the darkness.

 

77. The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed

 

78. I feel morally and intellectually obliged to simply conceded that the death penalty experiment has failed....  From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.

 

79. It has long been recognized that an essential element in protecting human rights was a widespread knowledge among the population of what their rights are and how they can be defended

 

80. The human rights we are to discuss here at Vienna are...the quintessential values through which we affirm together that we are a single human community.

 

81. The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights.  Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting

 

82. We are asking people to understand that slavery still exists today; in fact, according to a recent New York Times article, if you count the number of women and children in bonded labor, domestic slavery or sexual slavery today, there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history.

 

83. Democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority

 

84. Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life...

 

85. America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America

 

86. A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.

 

87. If nations are allowed to commit genocide with impunity, to hide their guilt in a camouflage of lies and denials, there is a real danger that other brutal regimes will be encouraged to attempt genocides

 

88. We discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all. We discovered that life at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges, the prides, the rights, the joys which make it worth living, and also worth giving. And we also discovered that there is something more hideous, more atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear.

 

89. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.

 

90. Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom

 

91. Together we can prevent genocide from happening again. Together we can make a better future for our children

 

92. Human Rights for everyone is the necessary foundation upon which all of us may build a world where everybody may live in peace and serenity and plenty

 

93. The idea of cultural relativism is nothing but an excuse to violate human rights

 

94. there is less cynicism about human rights than there was. The work we are doing is part of the overall pattern of human development, whatever the political system, whatever the country, whatever the cultural background, whatever the religion.

 

95. In a world riven by inequity, medicine could be viewed as social justice work.

 

96. If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right

 

97. Clean water and health care and school and food and tin roofs and cement floor, all of these things should constitute a set of basics that people must have as birthrights

 

98. Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having

 

99. If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek. If leaving duties unperformed we run after rights, they will escape us like a will-o'-the-wisp.

 

100. Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.