Dignity, liberty and justice for all people

Human Rights Day is celebrated every December 10, the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Since then, human rights are more widely recognized and guaranteed around the world. This has been the foundation for an expanding system of human rights protection that today also focuses on vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and migrants.

Nonetheless, the Declaration's promise of dignity and equal rights for all has come under constant attack in recent years. As the world faces new and continuing challenges - such as pandemics, conflict, growing inequalities, the moral bankruptcy of the global financial system, racism and climate change - our collective actions are guided by the values and rights enshrined in the Declaration to leave no one behind.

In this sense, the UNDP InfoSegura Regional Project, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), supports the strengthening of information management systems from a human rights perspective for the design of citizen security policies for quality services that focus on prevention and are people-centred.

The United Nations Development Programme, through InfoSegura, has created tools and mechanisms to strengthen the technical and technological capacities of different national and local government institutions. It has also promoted regional collaboration and fostered the creation of a regional community of knowledge on citizen security. As a result, the Project has helped build government and civil society capabilities to analyse information on citizen security; it has promoted dialogue between public institutions and civil society; and it has informed evidence-based policy design and analysis with quality data.

The true spirit of the UDHR calls for a renewal of the social contract between governments and their peoples, and within societies, in order to regain trust and adopt a shared and global vision of human rights on the road to fair and sustainable development.