December 8 2025

Each year, Human Rights Day is commemorated on December 10 to mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948, outlines the fundamental rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to.

The 2025 theme for Human Rights Day is Our Everyday Essentials: “too often taken for granted or seen as abstract ideas, human rights are the essentials we rely on everyday.”

Despite the progress that has been made since the declaration was adopted, human rights are under threat, whether through war and genocide, the rise of the far-right, austerity and privatization, or the impacts of the climate crisis.

Workers’ rights are under attack. According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) annual Global Rights Index report, the workers’ rights situation is deteriorating in many regions of the world. The analysis shows a rise in violations of fundamental rights, including access to justice, the right to free speech and assembly, and the right to collective bargaining. In Canada, governments have intervened to end strikes, which undermines workers’ collective bargaining rights and the right to strike.

The Carney government has been moving quickly on legislation that could impact all our rights, but particularly those of equity-deserving communities. Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, which allows for accelerating “national interest” projects, threatens Indigenous rights and sovereignty as well as environmental protection and health and safety. Bill C-2 and C-12, the Trump-influenced border bills, undermine privacy rights and migrant and refugee rights. And Bill C-9, which claims to combat hate, could restrict peaceful protests and fuel arbitrary policing and surveillance that disproportionately affects racialized and marginalized communities.

Provincial governments are abusing the notwithstanding clause to ram through laws and policies that override people’s fundamental rights. The target has often been equity-deserving communities including transgender and gender diverse people and religious minorities.

“Human Rights Day has traditionally been seen as a day to celebrate the progress made on advancing fundamental human rights,” said Bert Blundon, President of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). “But, when people’s fundamental human rights are under attack, today is a reminder that we must act.”

“We must not allow governments and employers to use a crisis or ‘nation-building’ as excuses to undermine our rights. Human rights are not optional. We must fight back against attempts to roll back hard-fought gains and continue to struggle for equity and justice.”