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 Peter Schieder, President of the Parliamentary
Assembly:
“Making human rights a reality for people everywhere in the world should remain a top priority for all governments and international organisations, governmental and non-governmental”
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 Terry Davis, Secretary General
''During last year, human rights were under attack all over the world, including Europe. It is time for a counterattack by all those who believe in human rights" (more) |
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 Giovanni di Stasi, Presdient of the Congress
"Local and regional authorities are confronted with human rights issues and, in this regard, it is local authorities that become the first interlocutor of individuals when dealing with individual rights"
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 ''Success at the expense of human rights is failure'' says Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner (more)
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 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, during the latter’s visit to the United Nations in October 2004
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World Human Rights Day was declared to mark the anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 48 votes were cast in favour of the Declaration, with eight abstentions, at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris on 10 December 1948.
The Declaration, proposed by the UN partly in reaction to the atrocities committed during the Second World War, lays down on a global scale the inalienable rights inherent in human dignity.
The preamble affirms the need to protect human rights through the rule of law, and the Declaration is described as "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations". Subsequently, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has become a reference text.
The Council of Europe drew heavily on it in 1950 for its paramount treaty, the European Convention on Human Rights. The defence of human rights is one of the vital missions of the Council of Europe, and the anniversary of the adoption by the UN of the Universal Declaration provides an opportunity each year to consider how fundamental rights are honoured across the globe.
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