The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights mentions that “every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms”.

 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), as a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations, beginning with the historic passage “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” was adopted on 10 December 1948 on the UN General Assembly as a proclamation voted by the then United Nations Members.

 

Currently, the Myanmar National Human Rights Com­mission has, since its estab­lishment, been educating the general public to enhance their awareness of the rights contained in the Univer­sal Declaration of Human Rights through a variety of measures.

 

In this regard, the Con­stitution (2008) also features provisions for the Citizens, Fundamental Rights and Du­ties of the Citizens. These provisions grant the citizens for enjoying fundamental rights and duties related to political, economic, social and other various sectors. But, they all need to follow the prescribed laws, rules and disciplines so as to enjoy the fruits of these fundamen­tal rights and duties.

 

To enable the entire pub­lic to understand more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to foster positive opinions and obser­vations of human rights, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission carry out its educative activities. The commission has been organizing educative talks, workshops and training courses from 2011 to date. In this regard, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was consistently included as a major subject.

 

Moreover, the commission published the text of the Uni­versal Declaration of Human rights in Myanmar and English as well as 21 ethnic languages for distribution to the national races so as to raise public awareness about the declaration.

 

In addition, the posters and pocket booklets of the Decla­ration were published in 2018 and 2021 for the people to have easy access to knowledge about human rights. Likewise, the Declaration was also published in Braille letter in 2022 for sharing knowledge with those from the School for the Blind (Kyimyindine).

 

Up to now, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commis­sion has also planned to organize awareness-raising activities on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in various ways and means throughout 2023 for enabling the people to comprehensively know missions and visions as well as human rights concerned with all global people.