The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • The United Nations, through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, first proclaimed in 1948, has long recognised the right to bodily integrity.

  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights [106] states the following points, which are relevant to the injection mandates:

    • Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.

    • It is essential to recognise the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family, including freedom of speech, belief, and freedom from fear and want.

    • Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

    • Article 2: 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.

    • Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

    • Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

    • Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

    • Article 8: 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.

    • Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.

    • Article 10: 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.

    • Article 13: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

    • Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

    • Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

    • Article 20: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

    • Article 23: (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

    • Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.