Introduction

The full text of all thirty articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as presented in glass at Imagine Museum. Each article includes the book’s glossary of key terms.

Introduction

In 539 B.C. the armies of Cyrus the Great conquered the city of Babylon. But rather than rape and pillage, Cyrus freed the slaves, declared freedom of religion and established racial equality. He created the world’s first charter of human rights, written in cuneiform on a baked clay cylinder.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was the first document to set out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected. Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings — they are not granted by any state or government. These universal rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, national origin, ethnic origin, color, religion, language, sex or any other status. They range from the most fundamental — the right to life — to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to education and liberty.

The UDHR is reprinted with approval from the UN Permissions team. Definitions of key words are drawn from merriam-webster.com and webstersdictionary1828.com.