UN High Commissioner for Human Rights message for Human Rights Day |10 December 2022

At a time when the world emerged from cataclysmic events, the Declaration sets out universal rights and recognized the equal worth of every person.

The Declaration – which was drafted by representatives from all over the world – embodies a common language of our shared humanity, a unifying force at the heart of which lies human dignity and the duty of care we owe each other as human beings.

In the past 74 years, the importance of universal, indivisible, and inalienable rights has only become clearer.

Yet there is a growing disconnect between the standards and the realities on the ground.

Even as the 30 articles of the Declaration have sparked transformation in all areas of our lives, the embers of racism, misogyny, inequality, and hatred continue to threaten our world.

We face a triple planetary crisis and skyrocketing inequalities – exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. And we are grappling with a rise in populist politics and authoritarianism, a deluge of misinformation both online and offline, and an alarming spread of conflict and violence.

All of these factors are impeding our progress towards a freer and more equal world.

In 2023 we will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which paved the way for the creation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

This coming anniversary year will be our opportunity to recall the consensus envisaged by the Declaration, to reset, and to strengthen the remarkable human rights architecture we have built.

With an eye to the past as well as to the future, I hope that the UDHR 75 initiative, which will be led by my Office together with our partners, will allow us to rekindle the spirit, the impulse and the vitality that led to the Declaration 75 years ago.

The language and spirit of the Declaration have the potential to overcome division and polarization. It can make peace with nature, our planet, and point the way to sustainable development for future generations.

Its light can shine in the daily lives of individuals, in communities, in their neighbourhoods, in schools, offices, and on the streets.

But this requires our generation, including young people, to give the Declaration new life, to take ownership and to repurpose it to meet the needs of our time and the challenges of our future.

In 2023, I invite everyone to take up the torch for human rights and use these rights to forge a common future of dignity, freedom and justice for all.