For the first time in United Nations history the annual UN Department of Public Information conference for Non-Governmental Organizations will be held outside of UN headquarters in New York. Long overdue renovations of the UN building have begun, with much of the staff having already relocated to rented offices around Manhattan.

From 3-5 September 2008 this international civil society gathering will be hosted at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The theme for the UN DPI/NGO Conference will honor the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters is located not far from the Trocadero, the site of the Palias de Chaillot across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower where the Declaration was originally adopted to guarantee human rights to all people.

UNESCO, which encourages international peace and universal respect by promoting collaboration among nations, is participating with the entire UN family in the yearlong campaign launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the 2007 kick-off toward the 60th birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Human Rights Day 2008. The theme of the campaign, “Dignity and Justice for All of Us”, reinforces the vision of the Declaration as a commitment to universal dignity and justice. UN organizations around the globe will use this year to focus on helping people everywhere learn about their human rights.

Ban Ki-moon praised the extraordinary vision and determination of the drafters to produce a document that for the first time set out universal human rights for all people in an individual context. Eleanor Roosevelt called the UDHR “a Magna Carta for all mankind”. The Universal Declaration and its core values ~inherent human dignity, justice, non-discrimination, equality, fairness and universality ~ apply to everyone, everywhere, always.

Following its adoption, the General Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights now holds the record as the most translated document in the world. Beyond the six official UN languages ~ Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish ~ the Declaration is available in more than 360 languages, a testament to its universal nature and reach. It has inspired the constitutions of many newly independent States and new democracies and has become a yardstick by which we measure respect for what we deem right and wrong.

The Declaration remains as relevant today as it did on the day it was adopted. By honoring its birthday, it becomes civil society’s obligation to lead Governments to develop the political will to implement these international norms, and to reaffirm the principles that ensures fundamental freedoms for each one of us. Let us reflect upon our individual and collective opportunities to stand up against violence, racism, xenophobia, torture, repression of unpopular views and injustices of all kinds, and with unprecedented efforts advance human rights and the fulfillment of unlimited human potential, a promise at the heart of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For the full text of UDHR, please google Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or visit the website for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at: http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/