Human Rights

What are Human Rights?

These are rights and freedoms that belong to every person. They are based on the values of equality, human dignity, freedom, the rule of law and democracy.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."- Article 1, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed in 1948 by every country in the world. Human rights are the same no matter where you are from, what you believe or how you live. They set the standards for how we live today.

The largest international organisation in the world is the United Nations with 193 member countries. The Council of Europe has 46 and the EU has 27. All these international organisations also work to support Member States (their member countries) on their duty to respect, protect and fulfil human rights.  

The Ombudsman monitors and promotes the effective implementation of signed and ratified international human rights instruments. 

In addition to information on international human rights instruments, in this section you can also find out which topics and problem areas are the Ombudsman's main field of activity as a public defender based on citizens' questions, complaints and alerts.