The Charter of the United Nations (1945) proclaims that one of the purposes of the United Nations is to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all. This call was first given concrete expression with the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Adopted against the background of the horrors of the Second World War, the Universal Declaration was the first attempt by all States to agree, in a single document, on a comprehensive catalogue of the rights of the human person. As its name suggests, it was not conceived of as a treaty but rather a proclamation of basic rights and fundamental freedoms, bearing the moral force of universal agreement. Its purpose has thus been described as setting “a common standard of achievement for all peoples in all nations”. Broadly speaking, the Universal Declaration sets down two broad categories of rights and freedoms - civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other