Human rights 365: celebrating Human Rights Day 2014

Date: 9th December 2014
Category: Awareness-raising

10th December is Human Rights Day, commemorating the date on which the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 10th December as Human Rights Day in 1950, highlighting the principles of the Universal Declaration as the "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations."

This year's slogan, Human Rights 365, encompasses the idea that every day is Human Rights Day. It celebrates the fundamental proposition in the Universal Declaration that each one of us, young and old, everywhere, at all times is entitled to the full range of human rights, that human rights belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values.

As we reflect on the state of global human rights, there are places where recent progress in achieving human rights has been reversed. Nonetheless, there have been significant, ongoing, global advances in achieving human rights.

2014 is the year the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) reached its 25th anniversary and the Convention against Torture reached its 30th year.

As a global community, we share Human Rights Day to acknowledge the milestones in progressing human rights and to take stock of the challenges ahead. It offers all of us the opportunity to declare our commitment to the principles and standards developed over the more than six decades since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.

On Human Rights Day 2014, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon states:

"I call on States to honour their obligation to protect human rights every day of the year. I call on people to hold their governments to account. And I call for special protections for the human rights defenders who courageously serve our collective cause.

Let us respond to the cries of the exploited, and uphold the right to human dignity for all."

• Read Ban Ki-Moon's full Human Rights Day 2014 statement here.
• Find out what is happening to celebrate Human Rights Day in Scotland today here.