New York  - All its goals have not been achieved, but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) remains even more relevant today than when it was adopted 60 years ago.

The United Nations will mark the mark the 60th anniversary on Wednesday of the UDHR, which came into force on December 10, 1948, in Paris, and represents the first comprehensive agreement among nations that outlined the specific rights and freedoms of all human beings.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva said in a statement that the principles of the UDHR have been reflected in the constitutions and laws of more than 90 countries.

"Nevertheless, for many people the Universal Declaration remains an unfulfilled promise, as states' political will to fulfil their obligations lags lamentably behind their pledges," it said.

In the last 60 years, there have been severe lapses by governments in implementing the human-rights standards described in the document.

Lately, this has been compounded by the ongoing global financial crisis that has sent millions of people falling into poverty. The human rights to food and wellbeing are as important as freedoms of expression and worship.

On the eve of the UDHR's 60th anniversary, the Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the number of hungry people has risen to 963 million - some 40 million more than last year - because of high food prices.

"We are still, 60 years on, a very long way from achieving the goals laid down in the Universal Declaration," the UN human rights office said. "No country in the world can sit back complacently and say, 'We're there.'"

It said that several million people around the world are even unaware that they have rights that they can demand from their governments - an intrinsic part of the UDHR, which was hammered out by a team of US participants led by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt after World War II.

"Despite all our efforts over the past 60 years, this anniversary will pass many people by, and it is essential that we keep up the momentum, thereby enabling more and more people to stand up and claim their rights," it said.

The UN, backed by advocacy groups, has held year-long conferences to re-energize efforts to implement the UDHR. Upholding human rights has been considered the most effective way to prevent another Holocaust and to provide an international mechanism to protect the poor, the marginalized, migrant workers and refugees.

Human rights, along with development and security, are the three pillars upon which the UN has built its activities since its birth in 1945. UN founders included human rights in the organization's charter in response to atrocities committed during World War II.

On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly will conduct meetings to discuss lessons learned in the last decades, current challenges and a plan for the way forward.

The 192-nation General Assembly will honour six people, two posthumously, with its UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights for 2008. One of the honorees is Louise Arbour, former justice of Canada's Supreme Court and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in 2007 while campaigning for parliamentary elections, and Sister Dorothy Stang, a French nun, will be honoured posthumously.

Arbour had complained that while governments readily signed onto international human-rights conventions, they failed to enact national legislation to implement them.

Of the 52 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, only 15 have set up national committees on human rights, and a mere handful have ratified human-rights treaties.

"Abuse of the most basic human rights - and the attendant misery that brings - whether in the form of poverty, discrimination, violence or a whole host of other wrongs, is a constant feature of the lives of many," Arbour said at a meeting in Beijing, well before she stepped down from her post in July.

The UN has declared 2009 as the International Year for Human Rights Learning, in an effort to capitalize on efforts to push for greater implementation of the declaration. (dpa)