Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a global statement describing the rights and benefits that the world agrees are essential to securing equality, freedoms, and justice, and belong to all of us, by virtue of our inherent dignity as human beings.

The rights set out in the declaration include access to education, employment, fair pay, voting rights, healthcare and housing; the values of free speech, privacy, and mutual respect irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or religion are also included.

The declaration was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in the aftermath of the horrors of WWII, on 10 December 1948, with the core ambition of signaling a universal commitment to never again allow atrocities of that scale to occur. The Declaration became an essential companion to the United Nations Charter, which was also adopted in the same year.

As a founding member of the United Nations, Australia played a pivotal role in the drafting and adoption of the declaration, largely due to the leadership of Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, the head of Australia’s delegation to the United Nations, who later became the President of the UN General Assembly.

While aspirational in tone, the declaration was always intended to be a practical document: a blueprint for national and local authorities to follow when enacting laws or allocating resources.

The rights in the declaration were also designed to serve as tools for individuals to use when seeking to understand and challenge limits of permissible government action, and to highlight the responsibilities of the state to ensure that all people can live without fear of poverty or oppression and can actively participate in public life.

Now, 75 years after the birth of the declaration, the rights and freedoms espoused in its 30 articles remain more relevant – and in many places more fragile – than ever before.

Here in Australia our public institutions and public leaders remain committed to the values and ambitions of the declaration, but for many Australians fundamental rights and freedoms – including the right to housing and the right to health care – are sliding out of view.

In a country as wealthy and prosperous as Australia, we often forget to talk about the core concepts of dignity, equality, freedom and justice that underpin the declaration and unite our diverse community. We regularly forget to centre the rights and freedoms contained in the declaration when we talk about lawmaking and policymaking, or when we engage in political debate. And if we do “talk rights”, it is usually at the messy, painful, adversarial end of a dispute that’s caused harm to individuals, families or whole communities.

It’s hard for us to lift our gaze back up to the promise of universalism – and to our shared interest in preserving the human rights of others as the most powerful way to secure freedom, equality and justice in our own lives.

But, there are spaces and voices within our community that are busy doing this work.

Our young people, for example, are hungry to articulate and debate the values that define our modern democracy and are experimenting with new ways of using universal human rights concepts to make positive changes in their communities.

Many public servants and service providers are also taking a “human rights approach” to their work to help ensure that no perspectives are missing when they are designing new initiatives or programs, and to determine when it might be justified to limit or restrict the rights of one person or group to protect the rights of others.

The Social Development Committee of the South Australian Parliament has also recognised the need to engage the community in a respectful conversation about whether current South Australian laws are working well to protect and promote human rights, or whether new legislation such as a Human Rights Charter is needed.

This is a long-awaited and much-needed opportunity for people from all walks of life to share their thoughts on the values that unite us, and to point to any gaps when it comes to accessing the rights and freedoms espoused so eloquent in the declaration back in 1948.

I encourage all South Australians to participate in the Social Development Committee’s inquiry, which is accepting written submissions until 16 February 2024.

As the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights has said:

“Together, let’s rejuvenate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, demonstrate how it can meet the needs of our time AND advance its promise of freedom, equality and justice for all”.

 Dr Sarah Moulds is a Senior Lecturer in Law at UniSA  and a Director at Rights Resource Network SA.