In preparation for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 2023, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library digitized the complete documentation of the International Conference on Human Rights held in Teheran, Iran, from 22 April to 13 May 1968.
In December 1965, the General Assembly in its resolution 2081(XX) decided to convene an international conference to review the progress which had been made in the field of human rights since the UDHR’s adoption, assess the effectiveness of the United Nation’s methods in this field, and formulate a programme for the future.
Representatives of 84 States as well as representatives or observers from several UN bodies and specialized agencies, regional inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations attended the Conference that, on 13 May 1968, unanimously adopted the Proclamation of Teheran. In addition, it adopted 29 resolutions, on racial discrimination, self-determination, and other pressing topics. The texts of the Proclamation and of the resolutions were incorporated in the Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights, A/CONF.32/41.
The General Assembly, in resolution 2442 (XXIII) of 19 December 1968, stated that the Conference had made an important constructive contribution to the cause of human rights and endorsed the Proclamation of Teheran as an important and timely reaffirmation of the principles embodied in the UDHR.
The conference documentation in all official UN languages, encompassing over 1,500 documents and about 22,000 pages, is now freely accessible in the UN Digital Library. These documents, with the series symbol A/CONF.32/--, include documentation of the preparatory committee, lists of participants, meeting records, and of course the Final Act.
For more information, please consult the UN website on Human Rights Conferences and the UN Library’s Research Guide on UN Document Symbols.
Although the Library has achieved a lot with regards to digitization, it still has a long way to go, as another 15 million documents in the six official languages need to be scanned and made available to the public. Of these, one million are in such poor condition that immediate digitization would be necessary to preserve them. The Library is looking for fundraising opportunities to address this urgency, as this huge effort cannot be accomplished with existing resources.
