70 years Universal Declaration of Human Rights – A Time for Concern or Celebration?

Drafted by representatives with a variety of legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 in Paris.

The Declaration continues to serve as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations to this day. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration, the German Institute for Human Rights, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Forum Menschenrechte and the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights are inviting to an expert meeting on the significance and impact of the Declaration today.

The meeting aims to answer the following questions: How relevant is the UDHR in times that see the rise in both horizontal and vertical inequality as well as increasing political instability? To what extent can current international human rights instruments be utilized to achieve some of the standards outlined in the Declaration?