Press Release
December 9, 2018

Statement of Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan on the 70th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 2018
ALAM NIYO BA? 5 bagay tungkol sa Universal Declaration of Human Rights

We celebrate the signing of this document seventy years ago, as we try to live the spirit of the answer to the question "what makes one human?"

Human rights and justice are brother and sister. There is justice when duty-bearers nurture and realize human rights. Rights are a must; justice means doing right. We must do right.

  1. History. It was adopted 70 years ago after the bloody World Wars I and II when world leaders saw the horrors of war, the unspeakable violence of human versus human, and vowed never again.

  2. Revolutionary. The Declaration is considered remarkable because for the first time, it defines the basic human rights that must be protected everywhere all the time; it declares that everyone has rights that cannot be taken or given away.

  3. Leaders. Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a prime mover of the Declaration.

  4. Adoption. The Philippines is one of the first 48 countries to vote for the adoption of this Declaration. Other signatories: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Siam (Now Thailand), Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

  5. Translation. The Declaration was translated into more than 500 languages, a world record.

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