CIS - Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas

75th anniversary of the UDHR

94.4% of Spaniards believe that human rights are important to guarantee a more just society in Spain

• According to the survey on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights carried out by the CIS, 44% of Spaniards believe that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has helped the population know their basic rights
• Spaniards identify human rights with freedom, equality, social well-being, peace, democracy and social protection.
• Environmental rights, free healthcare and access to mental health would be the main rights that Spaniards would include in this treaty.
• 80.4% claim that renting a home in Spain is one of the situations in which discrimination is suffered the most

Madrid, February 13, 2023. The CIS has carried out a study on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 81.7% of the population claims that they know or have heard about this treaty. For 44.1% of Spaniards, this Declaration has served “a lot or quite a lot” for the population to know their basic rights, while for 36% this treaty has served “little or nothing”.

Considering the last 20 years, 48.2% of Spaniards believe that the number of countries that respect human rights has increased, while 24.5% assure that the number of countries that respect human rights has decreased.

New rights in the UDHR

Regarding a possible update of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 73.9% of Spaniards think that environmental rights (for example, the right to drinking water and other supplies) should be included , 72.6% think that the right to free healthcare and 44.4% affirm that the right to have access to mental health should be included.

Violation of human rights

Citizens assure that child labor, forced marriages or the existence of child soldiers should be eradicated “very urgently” (87.1%); lack of access to drinking water (86.3%); food deprivation (83.9%); and torture, the death penalty or slavery (82.8%).

For Spaniards, the most important aspects in a democracy are: that elections are free and fair (87.2%), that judges can carry out their work without interference (83%) and that information from the media is free, independent and plural (79.7%).

Discrimination in Spain

Renting a home is one of the situations in which discrimination can occur most in Spain, according to 80.4% of those surveyed. In second place would be discrimination at work, for 78.1%, and at school or institute for 72.6%.

When accessing private services such as banks or consultancies, 52.3% believe that they also suffer discrimination, while when accessing public services such as health or finance, the figure decreases, since only 34.1% believe that they are discriminated against. suffers discrimination in this area.

pressure instrument

When asked if the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an instrument of pressure for countries that violate them to accept them, 52.2% believe that it does serve to make these countries accept human rights or some of those rights. While 42.7% assure that the UDHR has no influence at all.

Furthermore, according to geographical area, the areas in which human rights are believed to be least respected are Africa (56.3%) and Asia (19.5%). And Iran (11.1%) and China (9.8%) are the two countries, according to those surveyed, in which they are least respected.

Finally, when asking Spaniards about how a country's success is achieved, 65.9% believe that this success "is based on compliance with human rights" , while 24.6% assure that success of a country “is based on its economic development.”

These and other data are collected in the '75th anniversary of human rights' Study that was carried out from January 26 to 31 . It is available to all media on the website of the Center for Sociological Research (www.cis.es).

For any questions, the Communication telephone number is 91 580 76 25/ 664 470 083.

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Email: comunicacion@cis.es
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