A subject book exhibition “Human dignity and justice for all” timed to the Human Rights Day runs from December 8 to January 4, 2011 at reading room 207.

This Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly (resolution 423 (V)) in 1950 and has been observed annually on December 10. This date was chosen in honor of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (resolution 217 А (III)) adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The Declaration had become the first world document to formulate the human rights and to proclaim the rights of a person and civil and political rights and liberties. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a basis for the international human rights standards. Many international treaties and conventions on human rights, regional documents, national laws on human rights and national constitutions are based on the Declaration. The Declaration regulations are a comprehensive system of standards having legal effect and designed to promote and to protect the human rights. At present the Declaration is published in more than 360 languages. The fact that this document has been translated into most world languages witnesses its universal character and prevalence.

A successful implementation of the Decantation resulted in The International Pact on Civil and Political Rights and The International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which came into effect in 1976 to develop the basic human rights formulated by the Declaration: the right to life, the right to equal protection of the laws, the right to free expression, the right to work, the right to social security and the right to education. In aggregate these pacts and the Universal Declaration make The International Bill of Human Rights.

International documents on human rights are growing in number and keep on improving, developing the basic rights and liberties formulated by The International Bill of Human Rights. They concern racial discrimination, tortures and enforced disappearances, and also rights of disabled people, women, children, migrants, minorities and the indigenous.

At present the human rights is the basic values accepted by all democracies. Free and effectual use of the human rights is one of the basic characteristics of a civil society and a jural state. However, in spite of human rights acknowledgment in state laws, the basic purpose of the Declaration is far from achieved, that is why we are still searching for the ways of full implementation of the human rights standards.

The present exhibition comprises more than 120 documents that reveal the UNO activities for promotion and protection of human rights and liberties, fight against human rights violations, development of international treaties and other international legal documents in this sphere. A particular section of the exhibition presents literature about human rights activists fighting against discrimination world over, as the motto of The Human Rights Day – 2010 is “Embrace diversity, end discrimination”.

The exposition includes the subject sections as follow:

Human rights: history, theory, present day;
Basic international documents on human rights;
The rights of women and children;
The rights of refugees, migrants, minorities and the indigenous;
Elimination of discrimination. Human rights activists;
Education and the human rights.

There are documents of international organizations (UNO, UNESCO, the European Union, the Council of Europe etc.) in Russian and English: books, periodicals, mastheads, brochures and booklets.

The exhibition is designed for specialists in international law, world policy, international relations and human rights, politicians and public figures, and also for students, professors and everyone who is concerned about the human rights implementation world over.

Useful links

UN bodies

Subject issues

Documents

Conferences

Human dignity and justice for all

Informational resources

Services