In order to commemorate the International Day of Human Rights, the European Union Delegation to China has prepared the short video “Together for Human Rights: Diverse voices, universal aspirations”.

EU high officials, Chinese members of independent civil society and the Ambassadors or chargés d’affaires of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden have joined their voices to read, each one in their own language, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on 10 December 1948.

With this video, the European Union and its Member States wish to celebrate universal Human Rights enshrined in this Declaration, and to pay a special tribute to those great people all around the world who have consecrated their lives to fight for these rights: human rights defenders.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is now the expression of the highest international law, binding to every member of the international community. The Universal Declaration contains 30 fundamental rights and freedoms, including the rights to freedom of thought, freedom of religion and belief, freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Their objective is to guarantee human dignity and equality for all.

In the last decades, the EU and the UN have been working hand–in-hand to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without discrimination of any kind. With this video, the EU and its Member States reaffirm the universality and indivisibility of human rights, which are inherent and inalienable to all human beings, at all times and everywhere. On this day, the European Union and its Member States also reaffirm the shared commitment to advance, maintain, and protect these universal rights.