This website explains all international procedures available for people living in Africa to claim their human rights. It offers many options for accessing the information: either by a list of the international instruments, article by article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, country by country or through the list of human rights topics.

On December 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the first time in history, an official statement was made that all human beings have the same fundamental rights, irrespective of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

In 1948, three of the four independent African states at the time (Egypt, Ethiopia and Liberia) voted in favour of the adoption of the Declaration, South Africa abstained. The subsequent decades saw successful struggles for independence for almost all territories in Africa. Colonialism, slavery and apartheid largely have become history for Africa.