Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death.In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which sets out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected.The declaration has been translated into over 500 languages and has inspired more than seventy human rights treaties, which are applied globally1.This principle, as first emphasized in the UDHR, is repeated in many international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions2.When people are empowered to pursue their own destinies and have a say in their own futures, they can help ensure that their governments act responsibly.For example, progress in civil and political rights facilitates the exercise of economic, social, and cultural rights, and vice versa2.The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law.