These provisions echo Article 29(1) of the UDHR,
which provides that
“everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development [of] his personality is possible.”
They also echo provisions in regional instruments,
including the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) (1981), Article 27(1) of which provides that ‘Every individual shall have duties towards his family and society, the State and other legally-recognized communities . . .” Nevertheless, in Article 7, the Declaration seeks to distinguish regional human rights standards from universal standards and from those in other regional systems, providing that “the realisation of human rights must be considered in the regional and national context and bearing in mind different political, economic, legal, social-cultural, historical and religious backgrounds.”