Human Rights Day

What Is Human Rights Day?

December 10th is Human Rights Day. It marks December 10, 1948, when the third session of the UN General Assembly, meeting in Paris, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950 the General Assembly passed a resolution inviting all states to observe the date as Human Rights Day, making it an official international observance.

Thirty Articles That Became a Foundation

The Declaration consists of a preamble and 30 articles, setting out that all people are born free and equal and affirming the right to life, liberty and security of person, equality before the law, freedom of thought and expression, education, and work. It is not a treaty and carries no binding force, yet it became the foundation for the International Covenants on Human Rights and the treaties that followed, and shaped constitutions and laws in many countries. It is also known as the most widely translated document the United Nations has produced.

How the Declaration Was Drafted

The drafting was done by a Commission on Human Rights of 18 members, chosen to reflect the range of UN membership at the time. It was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with P.C. Chang of China as vice-chair, alongside members from Chile, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Lebanon, the Philippines, the Soviet Union and elsewhere. The vote was 48 in favor, none against, and 8 abstentions -- the Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. That not a single delegation voted against it is part of why the document has been cited so widely ever since.

Japan's Human Rights Week

In Japan, the week ending on Human Rights Day -- December 4 to 10 -- is designated Human Rights Week. The Ministry of Justice and the National Federation of Human Rights Commissioners have run it every year since 1949. Legal affairs bureaus and local governments hold lectures, essay contests and free human rights consultations. For people at work, this is often when the company schedules its harassment and human rights training.

• Forcibly displaced people: 117.8 million worldwide at the end of 2025, per UNHCR -- about 1 in every 70 people on earth
• The breakdown: 41.6 million refugees, 9 million asylum seekers, 68.7 million internally displaced
• Gender equality: ending discrimination and violence against women and sexual minorities remains a shared task
• Business and human rights: companies face growing scrutiny over forced and child labor in their supply chains

Tips for Marking This Day

• Read all 30 articles of the Declaration -- the UN publishes it freely in many languages
• Find out where your own workplace's human rights policy and harassment contact point are
• Look up Human Rights Week events and free consultations run by your local government
• Drop one joke that turns on someone's nationality or background from your own conversation

More Than Seventy Years On

The Universal Declaration came out of an agreement, after two world wars, that it must not happen again. A document with no binding force still underpins national law and workplace rules today. December 10 is a day to check where the rights you take for granted actually came from.