Article One: Free and Equal in Dignity and Rights
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Words defined
- All
- every member; the whole amount; everybody, everything
- Brotherhood
- the quality or state of being a brother; alliance
- Conscience
- the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being morally right or wrong
- Dignity
- the quality of being worthy of honor or respect
- Endowed
- to provide with something freely or naturally
- Equal
- like for each member of a group, class, or society
- Free
- not subject to the control or domination of another
- Human Beings
- a person; a man, woman or child
- Reason
- the power of the mind to think and understand in a logical way
- Rights
- a moral or legal claim to have or obtain something
- Spirit
- the activating or essential principle influencing a person
Article Two: All Rights Without Distinction
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Words defined
- Declaration
- the act of declaring; announcement — a written or spoken statement that tells people about something
- Distinction
- the act of perceiving someone or something as being not the same and often treating as separate or different
- Entitled
- having a right to certain benefits or privileges
- Everyone
- every person; all
- Jurisdictional
- the authority of a sovereign power to govern or legislate
- Rights
- a moral or legal claim to have or obtain something
- Sovereignty
- a country’s independent authority and right to govern itself
Article Three: Right to Life and Liberty
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Words defined
- Liberty
- freedom from restraint, in a general sense, applicable to the body, or to the will or mind
- Life
- in animals, animation, vitality; and in man, that state of being in which the soul and body are united
- Security
- protection; effectual defense or safety from danger of any kind
Article Four: Freedom for All
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Words defined
- Prohibited
- not permitted; forbidden by authority
- Servitude
- a condition in which one lacks liberty, especially to determine one’s course of action or way of life
- Slavery
- the practice of slaveholding; the state of a person held in forced servitude; a situation in which people are entrapped (as by debt) and exploited; submission to a dominating influence
Article Five: Treat People with Kindness
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Words defined
- Cruel
- disposed to inflict pain or suffering; devoid of humane feelings
- Degrading
- causing or associated with a low, destitute or demoralized state; causing someone to be or feel degraded
- Inhuman
- lacking pity, kindness or mercy; savage; cold, impersonal — not worthy of or conforming to the needs of human beings
- Torture
- the infliction of intense pain to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure
Articles Six–Eleven: Law and Order
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
- Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
- No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Words defined
- Arbitrary
- existing or coming about seemingly at random, or as a capricious and unreasonable act of will; not restrained or limited in the exercise of power
- Discrimination
- prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment; the quality or power of finely distinguishing
- Exile
- to banish or expel from one’s country or home
- Incite
- to move to action; stir up; spur on; urge on
- Law
- a binding custom or practice of a community; a rule of conduct prescribed or recognized as binding and enforced by a controlling authority
- Law and Order
- the enactment of laws and their strict enforcement by police and the courts
- Penal
- of, relating to, or involving punishment, penalties or punitive institutions
- Tribunal
- a court or forum of justice