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A declaration (sense 1) of the UN General Assembly passed in 1948 which set out the basic rights and fundamental freedoms to which all men and women everywhere in the world were deemed to be entitled. The subsequent endeavour to translate these rights into legal (and hence binding) obligations bore fruit in two 1966 treaties: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which entered into force in 1976, and to both of which the majority of states are parties. Quite apart from them, however, many provisions of the Universal Declaration are widely thought to have the weight of customary law. There is often, however, a gulf between the law and state practice, which can be very difficult to bridge. See also human rights. |
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