From December 6th to January 3rd, an exhibition “Human rights: freedom and equality for all” timed to the International Human Rights Day runs in the Official documents reading room (room 207).

This Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly (resolution 423 (V)) in 1950 and has been observed annually on December 10th. This date was chosen in honor of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 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. It is included into the Guinness Book as a documents translated into more than 380 languages and dialects.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the basic international code on the basis of which the development of other international agreements is carried out. Its statements have become the basis of more than 80 international treaties and declarations on human rights, a huge number of regional conventions, national laws and constitutions of the states. In the aggregate they make the universal system of the norms having an obligatory validity and called to encourage and protect human rights.

Human rights are the basic value recognized by all democratic states. Today all states-members of the United Nations have ratified at least one of nine basic international treaties on human rights, and 80 % of them have ratified four or more, that is a concrete display of the universality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its statements. However, despite the recognition of human rights in laws and duties of the states, in any country it is possible to reveal gapes in practical implantation of human rights. At present the purpose of the Declaration remains unachieved. Therefore we are still in search of the ways to overcome the obstacles that impede the implementation of all standards in the field of human rights.

The main task of the International Human Rights Day is a triumph of freedom, safety and equality all over the world. The observation of the Day is an annual opportunity to appreciate everything that has already been done in the field of human rights, and to pay attention to any concrete aspect of these rights. Such aspects as a racial discrimination, tortures and violent disappearances, and also the rights of the disabled, women, children, migrants, minorities and the indigenous are touched.

The theme of the Day in 2012 is “My Voice Counts”. The UN suggests to concentrate the attention on the rights of all people: women, youth, minorities, the disabled, the indigenous, those who live in poverty and those who have appeared on the edge of life. It is necessary to make their voices been heard in society so that their needs and expectations would be considered at decision-making.

The offered exhibition includes more than 100 documents most part of which are documents of international organizations (UN, UNESCO, the European Union, the Council of Europe etc) in Russian and English: books, periodicals, mimeographed materials, brochures and booklets.

The exposition includes the subject sections as follow:

Human rights: history, theory, present day.
International mechanisms of protection of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Rights of women and children.
Rights of refugees and migrants.
Rights of minorities and the indigenous.
Eradication of racial discrimination and apartheid.
Human rights education.

The exhibition will be interesting to specialists in international law, world policy, international relations and human rights, and also students, postgraduates, professors, political and public figures and everyone who is concerned with the current state of the human rights in the world.

Contact phone number: (+375 017) 293 27 34.

Useful links

UN bodies

Subject issues