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For all the intricate legal explorations of human rights and all the governmental sparring over human rights issues, human rights protection remains firmly in the hands of individual people worldwide who value freedom and justice.

Looking back over the last 50 years of human rights developments, observers agree on two points: Human rights guarantees begin with public pressure, and human rights abuses cease when they receive public scrutiny. When people speak out, governments muster the political will required for positive change.

Fifty years of accelerating grassroots human rights activism has demonstrated that governments can be embarrassed into changing when their human rights abuses are publicized, or assisted in changing when their human rights protections fall short of their public pledges and legal obligations, or spurred on to positions of human rights leadership when people will accept nothing less.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides standards for measuring the human rights performance of all the world's nations. Governments hold each other accountable to these standards, but ultimately, individual people the world over must decide whether their own human rights are satisfactorily respected.

Are your human rights respected? What about the human rights of people you care about? A good way to begin answering these questions is to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the following pages. Then consider joining in the activities suggested in this Guide.