Human Rights Day focusses on 20 years of OHCHR

December 10, 2013 - As the United Nations marked Human Rights Day on Tuesday, the UN chief paid tribute to anti-apartheid leader and former South African president, Nelson Mandela as “one of the great symbols of human rights of our time,” whose lifelong commitment to human dignity, equality, justice and compassion, he said, will forever remain an inspiration as we continue to build a world of all human rights for all.” The special focus of this year’s December 10 Human Rights day was 20 years of the UN’s efforts and struggle to make “rights a reality for all” through the creation of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), through the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on June 25, 1993. In a message for Dec. 10 Human Rights Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the creation of the office “one of the international community’s long-held dreams.”
Ban noted that “through a wide range of norms and mechanisms, OHCHR advocates for victims, presses States to live up to their obligations, supports human rights experts and bodies, and — through presences in 61 countries — helps States to develop their human rights capacity. However, the task has not been easy with genocide and many other appalling and large-scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The UN chief thus drew attention to the new initiative, the Rights Up Front Action Plan, as a way of preventing and reacting to impending catastrophes. He said it seeks to strengthen our responses to wide-spread abuses and prevent such situations from arising in the first place, through an emphasis on rights-based early warning and action. Ban thus called on UN member states to fulfill the promises they made at the Vienna Conference. (Source: UN)