The UN Declaration of 1999 is world-wide aknowleged as the Charter of Human Rights Defenders. Besides its instrumental utility, the Charter provides very important guidelines for the implementation of the (new) concept of «universal citizenship» as inherent to the legal status of «human being» (personne humaine). It proclaims inter alia that the «human rights space» has no borders. Those who strive for the promotion and the protection of human rights should then be considered as the pioneers of the universal citizenship, aiming at constructing a more humane, just and peaceful world order.
In the John Paul II Message a significant recognition is payed in particular to those human rights movements which are advocating for the effectiveness of the international law rooted in the first part of the United Nations Charter and provide sound impetus to the planetary processes of structural (humancentric) change.