The adoption of the Universal Declaration has been credited with helping advance the spread of democracy throughout the world since 1950, when there were just 20-25 democratic countries. Since then, the percentage of countries where the government is formed on the basis of majority rule, determined by regular elections, has risen considerably, boosted first of all by the end of colonialism and then by the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Bloc in 1989.
As efforts to control speech and information increase, the UN Human Rights Office has provided guidance on how to distinguish free speech from hate speech through the Rabat Plan of Action, which suggests setting a high threshold for interpreting the restrictions set by international human rights law in restricting freedom of expression.
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says we all have the right to our own beliefs, to have a religion, have no religion, or to change it. For its time, the UDHR was very progressive in asserting that believers of all religions and secular beliefs should be able to live peacefully with their rights guaranteed by the State, while not presuming any national or state-sponsored religion.