Human Rights Day
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Human Rights Day is celebrated annually, by some, across the world on 10 December. It is endorsed by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) as an official day of Humanist celebration.
The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global enunciation of human rights. The commemoration was established in 1950, when the General Assembly invited all states and interested organisations to celebrate the day as they saw fit.
The day is a high point in the calendar of UN headquarters in New York City, United States, and is normally marked by both high-level political conferences and meetings and by cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights issues. In addition, it is traditionally on 10 December that the five-yearly United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights are awarded.
Many other governmental and nongovernmental organisations active in the human rights field also schedule special events to commemorate the day. For instance, on Human Rights Day 2004:
- International PEN announced the launch of a new campaign to secure the release from prison of "cyber-dissidents" in PR China, Maldives and Vietnam. [1]
- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN's Special Representative for Human Rights Defenders and the African Union's Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights issued a joint communiqué in which they commended the European Union for its recent adoption of a set of guidelines for protecting human rights defenders and urged the world's other regions to take similar steps in that direction. [2]
- The American Association for the Advancement of Science organised a seminar in New York City on academic freedom in Iraq. [3]
| International Human Rights Day reminds us of persisting human rights problems in our communities and in the world, and of the enormous efforts still required to make human rights a reality for all. | ||
