On December 10, Human Rights Day is celebrated annually all over the world. On this significant date in 1948, the UN General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is noteworthy that next year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of this document. The UN member States adopted the Universal Declaration, driven by the desire to strengthen respect for the dignity of the human person, to revive its value. This was a natural consequence of the Second World War, the largest catastrophe of the last century. Humanity has paid tens of millions of lives for a bitter lesson: the ideas of Nazism and racial superiority have no place in the civilized world.
The Universal Declaration laid down universal standards for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and had a decisive influence on the formation of the international regime for the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as the development of international law in general.
The year 2023 will also be marked by another important event – the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. In these documents, approved following the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, the international community confirmed the priority of strengthening the international regime for the protection of human rights and proclaimed their universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interconnectedness. In addition, the principles of equality of all categories of human rights and voluntary cooperation of States in their implementation were enshrined.
On the eve of two such significant events, we call on all States to build cooperation in the human rights sphere on the basis of universally recognized principles and norms of international law, to work together to develop a constructive, equal and respectful dialogue on human rights.
The Russian Federation remains committed to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and consistently opposes any attempts to unscrupulously interpret this fundamental document in favor of the opportunistic interests of individual States and groups of States.
