Human rights include the:
- right to life and to a decent standard of living
- right to food, water and shelter
- right to the highest attainable standard of health
- right to education
- right to work
- right to freedom from discrimination
Human rights include the right to accountable government and to participate in political and cultural life. If we achieve human rights, we achieve development.
Every state in the world recognises human rights as the goals we want to achieve. Every state in the world has agreed to be bound by human rights laws and recognises the legitimacy of the system. This unique international consensus on values and objectives has huge legal and moral force. We need to do more to harness its potential in working to eliminate poverty and achieve the fullest human development.
DFID is committed to working with others to enhance the human rights of poor people. Through our development programmes and our diplomatic efforts we will continue to encourage governments around the world to ratify the UN human rights treaties, to help them abide by the obligations that those treaties place on states, and to put them into practice in national legislation and policy.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the most important documents of the 20th century and a milestone of international achievement on social justice. The Declaration was made by the newly formed United Nations in 1948 at a time when the world was in crisis after World War II. 60 years later, the world faces new crises but the Declaration is still as relevant and important today.
The Declaration sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms common to all of us as human beings across all cultures and nations. This means our right to life and to a decent standard of living; our right to food, water and shelter; our right to the highest attainable standard of health, education, decent work, and freedom from discrimination. Human rights are our right to participate in political and cultural life and the right to accountable government. They are our right to be treated with dignity and humanity.
The Declaration gives us a unique international consensus on our values and objectives as human beings. Every state in the world recognises the legitimacy of the international system of human rights and has agreed to be bound by these values. This international consensus on human rights is a vital tool for all of us working in development.
The Millennium Development Goals and Human Rights
The Millennium Development Goals are rooted in the UN Millennium Declaration and its affirmation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration.
The achievement of the MDGs will bring the world a long way towards the achievement of human rights for all. They provide important benchmarks for measuring progress, particularly on the rights to health, education and a decent standard of living.
The UK Government believes that sustainable development is underpinned by the achievement of human rights. Keeping human rights objectives firmly at the forefront of our work will be our surest contribution not only to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but to the achievement of the MDGs and beyond.
The United Nations, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have a leading role to play in applying human rights to our global challenges.
DFID and the FCO are longstanding partners of the OHCHR and are working closely with them to ensure greater impact of human rights approaches at international and country level. The cooperation currently includes a focus on examining links between human rights and the MDGs.