Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Articles
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act
towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in
this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national
or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no
distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to
which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust,
non-self-governing or under any other limitation of
sovereignty.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of
person.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the
slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person
before the law.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to
equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this
Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent
national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted
him by the constitution or by law.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or
exile.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public
hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination
of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against
him.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be
presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public
trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his
defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal
offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a
penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when
it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one
that was applicable at the time the penal offence was
committed.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his
privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his
honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the
law against such interference or attacks.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence
within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the
right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other
countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions
genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to
the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No
one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the
right to change his nationality.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to
race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a
family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during
marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be
entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending
spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental
group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the
State.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in
association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily
deprived of his property.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or
belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in
public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching,
practice, worship and observance.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and
to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media
and regardless of frontiers.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an
association.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his
country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in
his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the
basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in
periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal
suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting
procedures.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social
security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and
international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and
resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his
personality.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to
protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without
any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable
remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy
of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of
social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and
to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable
limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for
the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including
food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social
services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,
sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood
in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and
childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children,
whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
protection.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be
free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary
education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education
shall be made generally available and higher education shall be
equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2)
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human
personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and
friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of
peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind
of education that shall be given to their children.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural
life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific
advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right
to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from
any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the
author.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in
which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be
fully realized.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free
and full development of his personality is possible.
(2)
In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject
only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the
purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and
freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality,
public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised
contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for
any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to
perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and
freedoms set forth herein.