Rights and Humanity played a critical role in the lead up to the World Conference on Human Rights (WCHR) in 1993, Debate about the universality of human rights, and in particular aid conditionality, was threatened to undermine the success of the WCHR. We called an emergency meeting in Jordan for governmental and civil society representatives from throughout the world. At our meeting , under the Patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal, we forged consensus on the universality of human rights across world divisions.

We stressed that respect for human dignity are shared across faiths and cultures. We also stressed the need to view human rights objectively and to pay equal attention to civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights.

Our conclusions from this meeting proved to be of critical importance for achieving a successful outcome at the WCHR in June 1993. The UN Under-Secretary General for Human Rights, Mr Ibrahima Fall, participated in our meeting and submitted our recommendations to the final preparatory committee meeting for the WCHR.

Our wording was accepted and led to the adoption by the 171 states participating in the WCHR of the following statements:

“the universal nature of [human] rights and freedoms is beyond question”.

“All human rights are universal, indivisible and inter-dependent and inter-related. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner on the same footing and with the same emphasis".

As a result, states can no longer argue that their citizens are not entitled to human rights protection. Rights and Humanity is proud to have played such a significant role in this major breakthrough ensuring recognition of all human rights for everyone, everywhere.

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