Universal Declaration on the Illegality of Dictatorship Preamble Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world, Whereas Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that "the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government," expressed through genuine, periodic, and universal elections, Whereas a dictatorship is any regime that seizes, exercises, or maintains power without the free, genuine, and ongoing consent of the governed, substituting force, coercion, or fraud for the popular will, Whereas such regimes constitute a systematic violation of the social contract, denying the people their fundamental right to self-determination and abrogating their civil, political, economic, and social rights, Whereas governance by decree, the suppression of dissent, the persecution of political opponen...