HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2013

Human Rights Day is held on 10 December every year, the date the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaiming its principles as the “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.”

Human Rights Day is celebrated globally, at the headquarters of the High Commissioner’s office in Geneva, in New York and in more than 50 other countries.

Postcards from Hell, 2013

A protester carries an injured boy away from clashes with Egyptian riot police in Cairo on Jan. 26, 2013.

THE WORLD'S 40 MOST FRAGILE STATES

(The ninth annual collaboration between Foreign Policy and the Fund For Peace)

A wide range of issues -- wars, hunger, brutal dictatorships, child mortality, economic failure, mass epidemics, political infighting, and the devastating aftermath of natural disasters -- pushes countries to the brink of failure, or right over the edge. The following photos capture slices of daily life in the world's 40 most fragile countries -- snapshots that not only reveal strife and hardship, but also triumph and perseverance.

SOMALIA. A Somali boy plays soccer with Ugandan soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia in February 2013.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Miners near the city of Goma, in eastern DRC, dig for minerals -- such as coltan, tin ore, and manganese -- to be used in consumer electronics.

SUDAN A woman stands with a wheelbarrow close to el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on June 17, 2013.

SOUTH SUDAN Refugees from the violence-plagued province of South Kordofan play on the wreckage of a crashed aircraft near the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan in February 2013.

CHAD  Guards exercise during a parade on April 5, 2013, in Zakouma National Park, east of N'Djamena, in Chad.

YEMEN A Yemeni man rides a motorcycle past a damaged house in the historical quarter of the yemeni capital, sanaa, on june 3, 2013.

AFGHANISTAN During a "Taliban capture" military exercise run by French and Canadian soldiers, Afghan National Army cadets secure the perimeter as smoke bombs, simulating detonated IEDs, cover the area at the Kabul Military Training Center on Nov. 13, 2012, in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

HAITI Children and adults scavenge for recyclables and other usable items around a garbage truck at the Trutier dump on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 7, 2012.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Supporters of Bozizé cheer for soldiers as they follow the presidential convoy heading for the airport in Bangui on Jan. 10, 2013. 

ZIMBABWE A woman walks past an election billboard urging people to register to vote in Harare's Mbare township on June 11, 2013. The country is expected to hold presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.  

IRAQ Iraqi Shiite pilgrims look at a mock grave where people donate money along the road leading to Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in the capital, Baghdad, on June 2, ahead of the anniversary of the death of the Seventh Imam.

 IVORY COAST Soldiers of the Ivory Coast Republican Force patrol the streets of Dabou on Aug. 16, 2012, after a series of attacks.

PAKISTAN Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N celebrate election results in front of a party office on May 11, 2013, in Lahore, Pakistan.

GUINEA Guinean police charge to disperse opposition activists in Conakry on May 25.

GUINEA-BISSAU Student Rachid Malam peers off the edge of a colonial-era dock on the island of Bolama in Guinea-Bissau on Nov. 5, 2012. Established in 1890, Bolama was the first Portuguese colonial capital of Guinea-Bissau. In 1941, the Portuguese moved to the present capital, Bissau.

NIGERIA Children paddle boats to their Makoko shanty home in Lagos on Aug. 30, 2012.

KENYA Protesters hold fake Kenyan currency bills with the image of a pig during a demonstration outside Parliament after lawmakers voted to give themselves hefty salary increases on June 11, 2013, in Nairobi.

NIGER People ride by the entrance of Niger's gendarmerie national barracks on June 12, 2013, in Niamey.

BURUNDI A bus full of Burundian refugees returning from Tanzania and arriving at a transit camp in southern Burundi, in the hopes of being resettled.

 ETHIOPIA Ethiopian Orthodox clergy members stand outside Bete Giyorgis, also called St. George's Church, at the Lalibela holy sites on March 19, 2013, in Lalibela, Ethiopia. Lalibela is among Ethiopia's holiest of cities and is distinguished by its 11 churches hewn into solid rock that date back to the 12th century.

SYRIA A Syrian man stands on the rubble of his house while others look for survivors and bodies in the Tariq al-Bab district of the northern city of Aleppo on Feb. 23, 2013.

UGANDA  A Ugandan policeman beats up a journalist in Kampala on May 28, 2013, outside the Daily Monitor and Red Pepper newspapers, which were closed on May 20 by armed police.

LIBERIA A woman stands at her window in Monrovia on Jan. 29, 2013.

NORTH KOREA A young policewoman conducts traffic on April 3, 2011, in Pyongyang, North Korea. 

ERITREA Scrap-metal artisans make various tools inside Medebr metal market in Asmara, Eritrea, on May 12, 2008.

MYANMAR A Rohingya woman sits by a fire at a crowded internally displaced persons camp on Nov. 23, 2012, on the outskirts of Sittwe, Myanmar. 

CAMEROON  A group of men gather to read headlines about Cameroon's president at a newsstand in Yaounde on Nov. 6, 2012. 

SRI LANKA Sri Lankan Muslim schoolgirls stand on the edge of a seaport in Colombo on May 20 after traveling from their town of Kalmunai, over 231 miles east of the capital.

 BANGLADESH Bangladeshi Rescuers carry a worker out of the wreckage of a garment factory that collapsed on April 24, 2013. The disaster left more than 1,000 dead and sparked international outrage over working conditions in Bangladesh. 

NEPAL A Nepalese woman is pictured in the streets of Khokana, near Kathmandu, on June 11, 2013. 

MAURITANIA  Men run from tear gas during clashes with police at an anti-slavery demonstration in Nouakchott on May 26, 2012.

EAST TIMOR An East Timorese man carries bananas at a market in Dili on June 5, 2013.

SIERRA LEONE A man sits in front of a painted mural in Freetown on Nov. 19, 2012.

EGYPT An Egyptian woman sits with her laptop near the Presidential Palace prior to a protest against the government of Mohamed Morsy in December 2012.

BURKINA FASO Women attend a talk on HIV prevention at a clinic in Ouagadougou on April 13, 2013. In 2009, there were  110,000 people living with HIV in Burkina Faso, though the rate of infection is believed to be falling.

 REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO A Congolese woman and her children sit outside the Potopoto mosque in Brazzaville on March 30, 2013. 

MALI Malian soldiers patrol the streets of Timbuktu on Feb. 1, 2013, as French-led troops fight to expel Islamist troops from the northern city.

 IRAN  Iranians celebrate the victory of moderate presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani in Tehran on June 15, 2013. 

RWANDA Rwandans gather to watch television in the town of Rutare, 28 miles north of the capital, Kigali, on May 15, 2013. In 2012, however, the United Nations accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

MALAWI Children gather to receive a meal at the Mphandula Childcare Center in Namitete prior to a visit from Madonna on April 5, 2013. 

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cast Human Rights Day Postcards from Hell, 2013

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created   o.e.

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