| Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal
in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and
should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind,
such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore,
no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional
or international status of the country or territory to which a person
belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under
any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and
security of person.
Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude;
slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere
as a person before the law.
Article 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled
without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled
to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration
and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy
by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental
rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile.
Article 10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to
a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in
the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge
against him.
Article 11. (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence
has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to
law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary
for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any
act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national
or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier
penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal
offence was committed.
Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference
with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon
his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of
the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his country.
Article 14. (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to
enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely
arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes
and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15. (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied
the right to change his nationality.
Article 16. (1) Men and women of full age, without any
limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry
and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage,
during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent
of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and
is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17. (1) Everyone has the right to own property
alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion
or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in
public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.
Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media
and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of
peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in
the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government;
this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall
be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or
by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the
right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national
effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization
and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23. (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free
choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to
protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for
equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity,
and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection
of his interests.
Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays
with pay.
Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard
of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his
family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary
social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,
sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in
circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same
social protection.
Article 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education.
Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education
shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally
accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality
and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations,
racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United
Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall
be given to their children.
Article 27. (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate
in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share
in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material
interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production
of which he is the author.
Article 28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international
order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can
be fully realized.
Article 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community
in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject
only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose
of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of
others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order
and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to
the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted
as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any
activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the
rights and freedoms set forth herein.
[1] Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution
217 A (III) of 10 December 1948
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