10 December 2012 - This year, the Human Rights Day will focus on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized — to support their participation and inclusion in political decision-making.
The rights to freedom of opinion and expression, to peaceful assembly and association, and to take part in government (articles 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) are essential factors for the development of democratic societies in all countries worldwide. In an era of globalized economies, financial speculations, monopolistic cartels of transnational companies, the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement and the thousands of initiatives organized every day in the social media testify the will of all populations around the world to participate more actively both in the domestic and international political agenda.