Sixty years ago, on 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adapted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The preamble recognised the inherent dignity and ‘the equal and inalienable rights of all members of human family as the foundation of the freedom, justice and peace in the world’

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind.

Article 3

Everyone had the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective legal remedy if his/her rights are not respected.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone charged with a crime is entitled equally to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.

Article 11

Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor suffer attacks on their reputation.

Article 13

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, and the right to leave or return to their country.

Article 14

Everyone has the fight to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from prosecution.

Article 15

Everyone has the right to a nationality.

Article 16

Men and women of full age have the right to marry and found a family, with free and full consent, and equal rights during or after marriage.

Article 17

Everyone has the right to own property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers

Article 20

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Article 21

Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country. The will of the people expressed through elections shall be the basis of the authority of the government.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to realise the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for their dignity.

Article 23

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to fair and equal pay, and to form and to join trade unions.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure.

Article 25

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for their health and well being especially and mothers and children.

Article 26

Everyone has the right to education, including free and compulsory primary education.

Article 27

Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and benefits of scientific advancement, and to have their moral and material interests protected for their own creative work.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which all these rights and freedoms are protected.

Article 29

Everyone has duties to the community: the state may only limit someone’s right to ensure respect for the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 30

No governments, groups or individuals should destroy any of these rights and freedoms.