On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly, meeting in Paris, proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration, which emerged after more than 100 million deaths in the two world wars, separated by a mere 20 years, appeared to be an attempt to establish new parameters for a future of peace and understanding among the different peoples of this planet.
In 2025, the UN recognizes 120 active armed conflicts and more than 2 billion people affected by them. This is therefore a moment for reflection, rather than naively accepting a simple date for celebration. On the contrary, it would be more appropriate to critically examine and reflect on the scope and implementation of the Declaration made 77 years ago.
Without diminishing the intentions behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is necessary to review its implementation and direction in recent times. Recent examples include the unbridled rearmament of the countries responsible for or complicit in the great genocide and who later signed the Declaration, while simultaneously announcing a new conflict, this time involving nuclear weapons, for the next five years.
Thus, instead of dedicating all effort to modifying that violent and destructive direction that they present to us as the only possible one, by implementing the real application of Human Rights in all forms of violence; physical, economic, racial, gender, religious and moral, they openly head towards conflict involving the entire population, such as, for example, the enlistment, voluntary at first, but forced at a later time, of young people to feed the armies.
Furthermore, using human rights violations as a pretext, they employ violence to invade territories and impose an economic and power system disguised as peace and justice. Once again, the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples are being compromised through the manipulation of the concepts of peace and international solidarity.
News agencies of varying orientations have published world maps showing dozens of countries plagued by human rights abuses, and others tallying deaths in religious and interethnic wars. The maps also depict numerous locations where thousands have perished from hunger in their homelands or amidst mass migrations.
As the New World Order is being proposed, and due to economic interdependence, in all countries (rich or poor), capital will be undermining the universal and egalitarian conception of human rights.
Fundamental rights such as education, health, care for the elderly, the right to dignified pensions, care for the planet, respect for minorities, cultures and their ways of life accepted by the populations, cannot become subjects of reproach or forced adaptation to a system that in an immoral or violent way, seeks to perpetuate itself to achieve the profit and personal benefit of its powerful representatives.
“Human rights do not have the universal validity that would be desirable because they do not depend on the universal power of humankind, but rather on the power of one part over the whole. If the most basic demands regarding the governance of one’s own body are trampled upon in every corner of the world, we can only speak of aspirations that will have to become rights. Human rights do not belong to the past; they are there in the future, drawing on our intentions, fueling a struggle that is rekindled with each new violation of humanity’s destiny. For this reason, every demand made in their favor is meaningful because it shows current powers that they are not omnipotent and that they do not control the future.”
This world is about to explode, and there’s no way to stop the violence. Human rights can be a rallying cry, but we believe they need to be explored more deeply by each individual to bring about the necessary change that will lead us toward the Universal Human Nation we aspire to.
This is a call to everyone, a call to all human beings, to reflect on the kind of world and the conditions in which we want to live. A world where human beings are the central value, fulfilling the golden rule that proclaims, “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”
December, 10 2025
ICT of International Federation of Humanists Parties
