2020 Observance
Theme: Recover Better - Stand Up for Human Rights
This year’s Human Rights Day theme relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on the need to build back better by ensuring Human Rights are central to recovery efforts. We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.
10 December is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of human rights in re-building the world we want, the need for global solidarity as well as our interconnectedness and shared humanity.
Under UN Human Rights’ generic call to action “Stand Up for Human rights”, we aim to engage the general public, our partners and the UN family to bolster transformative action and showcase practical and inspirational examples that can contribute to recovering better and fostering more resilient and just societies.
Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals
Human rights are at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as in the absence of human dignity we cannot hope to drive sustainable development. Human Rights are driven by progress on all SDGs, and the SDGs are driven by advancements on human rights. Find out how .
#StandUp4HumanRights
Human Rights must be at the centre of the post COVID-19 world
The COVID-19 crisis has been fuelled by deepening poverty, rising inequalities, structural and entrenched discrimination and other gaps in human rights protection. Only measures to close these gaps and advance human rights can ensure we fully recover and build back a world that is better, more resilient, just, and sustainable.
- End discrimination of any kind: Structural discrimination and racism have fuelled the COVID-19 crisis. Equality and non-discrimination are core requirements for a post-COVID world.
- Address inequalities: To recover from the crisis, we must also address the inequality pandemic. For that, we need to promote and protect economic, social, and cultural rights. We need a new social contract for a new era.
- Encourage participation and solidarity: We are all in this together. From individuals to governments, from civil society and grass-roots communities to the private sector, everyone has a role in building a post-COVID world that is better for present and future generations. We need to ensure the voices of the most affected and vulnerable inform the recovery efforts.
- Promote sustainable development: We need sustainable development for people and planet. Human rights, the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement are the cornerstone of a recovery that leaves no one behind.
Messages
Secretary-General's Message
“RECOVER BETTER: STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS”
The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced two fundamental truths about human rights.
First, human rights violations harm us all.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups including frontline workers, people with disabilities, older people, women and girls, and minorities.
It has thrived because poverty, inequality, discrimination, the destruction of our natural environment and other human rights failures have created enormous fragilities in our societies.
At the same time, the pandemic is undermining human rights, by providing a pretext for heavy-handed security responses and repressive measures that curtail civic space and media freedom.
The second truth highlighted by the pandemic is that human rights are universal and protect us all.
An effective response to the pandemic must be based on solidarity and cooperation.
Divisive approaches, authoritarianism and nationalism make no sense against a global threat.
People and their rights must be front and centre of response and recovery. We need universal, rights-based frameworks like health coverage for all, to beat this pandemic and protect us for the future.
My Call to Action for Human Rights spells out the central role of human rights in crisis response, gender equality, public participation, climate justice and sustainable development.
On Human Rights Day and every day, let’s resolve to act collectively, with human rights front and centre, to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and build a better future for all.
António Guterres
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' Message
This year’s Human Rights Day falls at a time we will never forget. COVID-19 has taken us by storm and shaken our world. A tragedy followed by an extraordinary opportunity to recover better.
This Human Rights Day is a call to action. A call for all of us to seize this opportunity and build the world we want. For that, we must accept the lessons from this crisis.
One: end discrimination of any kind. Like pre-existing conditions that make individuals more fragile, gaps in respecting human rights have made all of society more vulnerable. If anyone is at risk, everyone is at risk. Discrimination, exclusion and other human rights violations harm us all.
Two: reduce widespread inequalities. Universal social protection, universal health coverage, and other systems for the delivery of fundamental rights are not luxuries. They keep societies standing and can shape a more equitable future.
Three: encourage participation, especially from young people. All voices have a right to be heard.
Four: increase and intensify our resolve and efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, a concrete Agenda for universal human rights. These are not just the right things to do –they are the smart things to do. And there is only one way they can be done: by standing up for human rights. Because human rights yield fair and resilient societies. They are the answer to this human crisis.
Like the climate emergency, COVID-19 reminds us that we are bound together as one humanity.
We must act. Working together, we can recover better.
With strong solidarity, we can build a world that is more resilient, sustainable and just.
Join me in standing up for human rights.
Michelle Bachelet
People and their rights must be front and centre of response and recovery. We need universal, rights-based frameworks like health coverage for all, to beat this pandemic and protect us for the future.
António Guterres
Additional Messages
Events
New York
In New York, UN Human Rights hosts a virtual event: “A Celebration of COVID-19 Frontline Heroes.” This one-hour event spotlights frontline workers who have borne the brunt of the pandemic, and community organizers who have helped those around them to cope with the pandemic in a human rights-centered manner.
UN75 dialogue on strengthening Human Rights
The UN75 Office together with Universal Rights Group hosts a virtual Zoom dialogue and high-level panel discussion to mark the UN75th anniversary and Human Rights Day: "Is human rights still a priority for the ‘Peoples of the United Nations’? Findings from the UN75 global survey and report".
UN Chamber Music Society
The UN Chamber Music Society performs a virtual concert in celebration of Human Rights Day featuring composers from diverse backgrounds.
Around the world
UN Human Rights’ presences around the world, United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) and other partners will also celebrate this important day.
Geneva
In Geneva, hosts an exclusive online audio-visual event: “”. The 90-minute programme highlights innovations by and inspirational stories of people and organizations that are finding ways to rebuild a better world by placing human rights at the heart of the recovery from COVID-19.
Campaign Materials
