Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, with forty-eight states voting in favour, none against and eight abstaining. It was drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, with important contributions from the French jurist Rene Cassin, the Lebanese philosopher Charles Malik and the Chinese diplomat Peng Chun Chang, in response to the atrocities of the Second World War. Its thirty articles set out civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to life, liberty and equality before the law, and freedom from slavery and torture. It is not a binding treaty, but it has inspired many national constitutions and later human rights treaties. The date is observed each year as Human Rights Day.

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