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.
Fair trade in New Zealand
International human rights law is founded on the idea that all human beings have the same set of fundamental rights. The right to equality and non-discrimination provides that human beings, regardless of their status or membership of a particular group, are entitled to the same set of rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948, includes in it protections against discrimination and slavery, and provides for the rights to freedom of association and to form and join trade unions, the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment and the right to equal pay for equal work. The significance of equality is reflected in the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights'.