The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 for the international promotion and protection of human rights, continues to empower peoples to build just, peaceful and sustainable communities.
Human rights are about freedom from fear as much as from want .
The human rights struggle is a struggle from fear of war, persecution and tyranny, and from want of poverty and hunger. These are moral claims which are inalienable and inherent in all human individuals by virtue of their humanity alone. These claims are articulated and formulated in what we today call human rights. . . . The basis of these legal rights is the consent of the governed, that is the consent of the subjects of the rights. The UDHR was produced in 1946 by the UN Commission on Human Rights, chaired then by Eleanor Roosevelt, human rights activist and widow of former US President Franklin Roosevelt.