A report from a meeting of
the Human Rights Council
25 February 2013
Vienna agreement about rights
An easy to read version
Disclaimer:
This is an easy-to-read version of the summary of the Panel
discussion to commemorate the twentieth anniversary
of the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action (A/HRC/23/29).
This document was published by the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights.
This does not mean that the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights agrees to everything
written in this document.
This easy-to-read version of the text was prepared by Inclusion Europe
www.inclusion-europe.org following the European standards for making
information easy to read and understand www.easy-to-read.eu.
© European Easy-to-Read Logo: Inclusion Europe.
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About this document
This document is a report from a meeting
of the Human Rights Council.
In this report, you will find out
what people talked about in the meeting.
The Human Rights Council is a group of countries
that work together on rights.
We call it ‘Council’ for short.
The Council works to make sure that
all people in the world can use their rights.
Rights are things that should happen equally
for everyone.
For example, everyone has the right to:
 be treated fairly
 have a say in the way things are run
in her or his country
 stay safe
The Human Rights Council is part of the United Nations.
The United Nations is a group of countries
that works to make the world a better place.
Almost all countries in the world
are part of the United Nations.
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What was the meeting about?
The Human Rights Council had a meeting
on 25 February 2013.
The meeting was about the ‘Vienna Declaration
and Programme of Action’.
The ‘Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action’
is an agreement among countries about rights.
The agreement says what needs to be done
to make sure all people can use their rights.
Countries made this agreement
during a big conference in Vienna 20 years ago.
Almost all countries in the world
took part in the conference.
In the meeting, the Human Rights Council
talked about this agreement.
Many people gave speeches in the meeting.
There were speeches by:
 people from the United Nations
 people from governments
of different countries
 experts who work on rights
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In the meeting, people talked about:
 What good things happened
because of the agreement?
 What have governments done to
make the things in the agreement happen?
 How has the United Nations helped
to protect the rights of people in the world?
 What more can be done to make sure
all people can use their rights?
This meeting was accessible
to persons with disabilities.
 People in the wheelchair could get easily
into the room.
 There was a person making sure that
deaf people could take part in the meeting.
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What good things happened
because of the agreement?
The ‘Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action’
is an important document.
In this document, countries agreed that
 All people have the same rights.
 Governments have a duty
to protect the rights of its people.
This means governments have to make sure that
all people can use their rights.
Because of the agreement,
a lot of work has been done
to make sure all people can use their rights:
Governments started to work more on making sure
all people can use their rights.
People started talking about rights
and why they are important.
Children started learning about rights at school.
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Organisations working on rights became stronger.
Some organisations are made up of experts.
Some organisations are made up of people
who have problems using their rights.
For example:
 organisations of people with disabilities
 organisations of women
These organisations know a lot about
what needs to be done.
They check if governments are doing enough
to make sure all people can use their rights.
The agreement in Vienna also meant
that countries started working together more.
For example, countries started working on
protecting women from being treated badly or hurt.
What has the United Nations done?
The agreement in Vienna helped to make
the United Nations work on rights stronger.
The United Nations set up a special office
working on rights.
It is called the ‘Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights’.
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The High Commissioner for Human Rights
is responsible for the work of the United Nations
on rights.
The United Nations also helped to make
important agreements among countries on rights.
For example, countries agreed on
the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities.
This is an agreement to make sure that
people with disabilities
have the same rights and chances
as other people.
The United Nations has also done
a lot of work on checking
if people in different countries
can use their rights.
For example, the United Nations helped
to stop governments
that hurt or killed groups of people
in their country.
This happened for example in Bosnia and in Rwanda.
The United Nations set up courts to
punish people responsible for these killings.
The United Nations also named a person to work
on making sure such killings do not happen again.
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What should happen next?
What governments should do
In every country, governments should:
 support people and organisations
who work on rights
 set up offices and rules about
protecting people’s rights
 make sure that people respect each other’s rights
It is important that all children learn about rights
at school.
What should the United Nations do?
The United Nations has to make sure that
governments protect the rights of their people.
In some countries, certain groups of people are still
treated unfairly or badly.
For example:
 women
 people who come from a different country
 people who do not agree with
what the government says
This means they have fewer rights.
Sometimes, they even get hurt or killed.
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The United Nations has to make sure that
governments protect the rights of all people equally.
There are already many agreements
among countries on rights.
The United Nations now has to make sure that
governments do what these agreements say.
The United Nations has to make sure that
all countries understand rights in the same way.
In some countries people believe that:
 Women should have fewer rights than men.
 Children can go to fight in a war.
 Parents can sell young girls for marriage.
This is against the rights of women and children.
It is important to make sure that
people all over the world have the same rights.
The United Nations has to help people
in poor countries.
Governments in poor countries often have problems
making sure all people can use their rights.
For example, all people have a right to food.
But governments in poor countries do not have
enough food for all people.
This means many people do not have enough food.
The United Nations must help to make sure
people in poor countries can use their rights.
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