Human rights document heads into space

PARIS, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Sixty years after its adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is about to journey into space.

Article 1 of the document states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Now the declaration, approved during a U.N. meeting Dec. 10, 1948, is going into space, with its destination being the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory at the International Space Station.

Rama Yade, the French secretary of state for foreign affairs and human rights, is to officially give a copy of the declaration Friday to ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain.

Protected by "space-proof packaging," the declaration is to be aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour when it is launched on its STS-126 flight Nov. 14 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The document will be stored on a permanent basis inside the ESA's Columbus multidisciplinary space laboratory.

"The ESA Astronaut Corps welcomes this humanitarian initiative," said ESA astronaut Leopold Eyharts. "In recognition of the fact that human beings are at times downtrodden, the Declaration can symbolically find its place 'above' all the peoples of the world."