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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration (something said in an important way) by the United Nations General Assembly. It talks about basic human rights -- rights that all people have just because they are human. It was adopted (agreed to) by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

The UDHR (initialism for Universal Declaration of Human Rights) is translated into over 300 languages. This is more languages than any other document, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.^[source?]

The UDHR may be broken into 30 parts or articles. Each article says one idea about human rights. Most people think these are the most important ideas:

• All people are born free and equal, because they have reason and conscience.
• Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and security of their person.
• Everyone should be protected from any kind of discrimination.
• Everyone has a right to have a nationality and change one's nationality.
• Everyone has a right to an education.
• Everyone has a right to get a job.
• Everyone has a right to vote and take part in the government of one's own country.
• Everyone has a right to take part in cultural life—to choose a way of life.
• No person may be tortured, or treated in a cruel or unkind way.
• Everyone has the right to seek and gain asylum from persecution.
• Everyone has a right to have ideas or opinions, to decide what is right and what is wrong, and to choose a religion.
• Everyone has a right to speak or write freely and right to join a peaceful group to express one's opinion.
• Everyone has a right to security if suffering unemployment, disease, disability, old age or loss of a partner.
• Everyone has duties to the community where one's personality can be developed freely.
• No one can use the Declaration as a reason to take away these rights and freedoms.

Below is a simplified list of all of the UDHR rights.^[1]

1. We Are All Born Free & Equal. We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.

2. Don’t Discriminate. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.

3. The Right to Life. We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.

4. No Slavery. Nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone our slave.

5. No Torture. Nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us.

6. You Have Rights No Matter Where You Go. I am a person just like you!

7. We’re All Equal Before the Law. The law is the same for everyone. It must treat us all fairly.

8. Your Human Rights Are Protected by Law. We can all ask for the law to help us when we are not treated fairly.

9. No Unfair Detainment. Nobody has the right to put us in prison without good reason and keep us there, or to send us away from our country.

10. The Right to Trial. If we are put on trial this should be in public. The people who try us should not let anyone tell them what to do.

11. We’re Always Innocent Till Proven Guilty. Nobody should be blamed for doing something until it is proven. When people say we did a bad thing we have the right to show it is not true.

12. The Right to Privacy. Nobody should try to harm our good name. Nobody has the right to come into our home, open our letters, or bother us or our family without a good reason.

13. Freedom to Move. We all have the right to go where we want in our own country and to travel as we wish.

14. The Right to Seek a Safe Place to Live. If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe.

15. Right to a Nationality. We all have the right to belong to a country.

16. Marriage and Family. Every grown-up has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated.

17. The Right to Your Own Things. Everyone has the right to own things or share them. Nobody should take our things from us without a good reason.

18. Freedom of Thought. We all have the right to believe in what we want to believe, to have a religion, or to change it if we want.

19. Freedom of Expression. We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.

20. The Right to Public Assembly. We all have the right to meet our friends and to work together in peace to defend our rights. Nobody can make us join a group if we don’t want to.

21. The Right to Democracy. We all have the right to take part in the government of our country. Every grown-up should be allowed to choose their own leaders.

22. Social Security. We all have the right to affordable housing, medicine, education, and childcare, enough money to live on and medical help if we are ill or old.

23. Workers’ Rights. Every grown-up has the right to do a job, to a fair wage for their work, and to join a trade union.

24. The Right to Play. We all have the right to rest from work and to relax.

25. Food and Shelter for All. We all have the right to a good life. Mothers and children, people who are old, unemployed or disabled, and all people have the right to be cared for.

26. The Right to Education. Education is a right. Our parents can choose what we learn.

27. Copyright. Copyright is a special law that protects one’s own artistic creations and writings; others cannot make copies without permission. We all have the right to our own way of life and to enjoy the good things that art, science and learning bring.

28. A Fair and Free World. There must be proper order so we can all enjoy rights and freedoms in our own country and all over the world.

29. Responsibility. We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms.

30. No One Can Take Away Your Human Rights.

The United Nations Human Development Report has been criticised by different people. Mainly Islamic countries have pointed out that its understanding is mainly that of Christians or Jews. Muslims could not implement certain parts of the declaration, without trespassing Islamic law.^[2] On 30 June 2000, Muslim nations that are members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference^[3] officially resolved to support the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,^[4] an alternative document that says people have "freedom and right to a dignified life in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah".^[5]

• Text of the UDHR at the United Nations website explained in Plain English
• Text of the UDHR at the United Nations website

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