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Protecting the rights of everyone, everywhere.
Following the traumatic events of the Second World War, governments worldwide made a concerted effort to foster international peace and prevent conflict, marked by the founding of the United Nations in June 1945.
In 1948, representatives from the 50 member states of the UN came together under the guidance of Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States from 1933-1945, to devise a list of all the human rights that everybody across the world should enjoy. On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – 30 rights and freedoms that belong to all of us. Seven decades on and the rights they included continue to form the basis for all international human rights law.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. [...] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” - Eleanor Roosevelt.
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