Human rights in Muslim-majority countries
When the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, Saudi Arabia refused to sign it as they were of the view that sharia law had already set out the rights of men and women. To sign the UDHR was deemed unnecessary. What the UDHR did do was to start a debate on human rights in the Islamic world. Following years of deliberation, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) adopted the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam.
Human rights movement in the Soviet Union
In April 1968, marking the declared International Human Rights Year by the United Nations, anonymous editors in Moscow released the first issue of the "Chronicle of Current Events". The typewritten samizdat bulletin was written in a documentary style and reported news about dissident activism, repression, and the penitentiary system. Every issue of the "Chronicle" reprinted Article 19 of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stated: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."