Human Rights Day marks 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"Source: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/ "

The Declaration recognized for the first time in history the universality of the basic human rights and freedoms, and promotes the basic principles of their protection, such as non-discrimination, equality and justice, the confirmation and implementation of which has later been strengthened through legally-obliging national and international instruments. On the occasion of marking the 60th anniversary of the Declaration, the UN will adopt a joint ceremonial statement reminding about the Declaration as the common legacy of peoples and nations.

Promoting the protection of human rights has been integrated into Croatia’s foreign-policy guidelines, which considers the protection of human rights and the rule of law the basis of world peace and stability.

In accordance with the Declaration, the Republic of Croatia supports the protection of human rights and basic freedoms of all persons in all countries, advocating their universality and the strengthening of interrelatedness and conditionality of all human rights. The Republic of Croatia, therefore, is joining the key international instruments and actively participates in developing new standards in the area, supporting the mechanism monitoring the efficiency of countries in the concrete protection of human rights.

In that regard, the Republic of Croatia is orienting itself towards initiatives concerning the abolishment of capital punishment, elimination of all forms of torture, protection of children’s rights, including the prohibition of physical punishment, as well as the promotion of gender equality, fighting violence against women, protection of the national and ethnic minority rights, and the promotion of interreligious dialogue and tolerance.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration has joined the marking of the Declaration’s anniversary as an active member of the Croatian Government’s Commission founded to that end, and has drafted a new translation of the Declaration, in accordance with the new linguistic standards adopted in the area of human rights.