In 1950 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution inviting all the states and interested organizations to adopt 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day. This is the day when the Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

When establishing this day, the UN General Secretary pointed out: «Education in the sphere of human rights is a lot more than just a lesson at school or a subject of the day; it is a process of people familiarizing with mechanisms which they need to live in safety and dignity.  On this International Human Rights Day let us apply our common efforts to ensure the human rights culture upbringing of the future generations, to contribute to the triumph of freedom, strengthening of security and peace in all the countries».

All the peoples always had moral and legal codes on protection of human dignity, which defined the limits of the state intrusion into privacy of its citizens. But often the relations «state-individual» were objectively unequal. In the first half of the ХХ century this led to emerging of totalitarian regimes and the worst world war in history.  Adoption of the unified international system of human rights protection was announced as one of the priority tasks of the United Nations Organization which was created immediately after the end of the war.   

This year the Human Rights day marks the start of campaign dedicated to the 50-th anniversary of two treaties in the sphere of human rights — International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, — which were adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 December 1966.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two optional protocols together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights aggregate the International Bill of Human Rights.

The campaign of this year «Our rights. Our freedoms. Always» aims at enhancement of the level of information awareness about the two treaties which mark their 50-th anniversary. The campaign puts emphasis on the topic of rights and freedoms — the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the freedom from want and fear, — which is  relevant today just as it was 50 years ago when these treaties were adopted.  

International Human Rights Day is another reminder that human rights protection is our common task: of the state and the society, and that the supreme value on the Earth is the Human being.  

We congratulate everyone whose life and professional activity is related to the noble deed of serving the human rights protection. 

Based on the materials of the website of the United Nations Organization.