Date: 10 December 2004

The promotion and protection of human rights has been a major preoccupation for the
United Nations since 1945, when the Organisation's founding nations resolved that
the horrors of The Second World War should never be allowed to recur. 

On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which states "All human beings are born with equal and
inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms". Over the years, a whole network of
human rights instruments and mechanisms has been developed to ensure the primacy of
human rights and to confront human rights violations wherever they occur.

In 1950, all States and interested organisations were invited by the General
Assembly to observe 10 December, the anniversary of the Assembly's adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as Human Rights Day (resolution
423V).

Information about Human Rights Day 2004 will soon be made available on the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) website.

For more information, contact:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
Website: www.ohchr.org