Commonly shortened to:

“We are all born free and equal.”

Dangers of literal interpretation:

The literal interpretation is dangerous. We have different skills and motivations, we are different individuals—we are not all the same. Government efforts to enforce “equality” tend to reduce all to the lowest standard.

Our proposed statement:

We are all born free and with equal rights before the law. We all deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity, including the right to our human rights. Different countries and families have different economic and political realities and the correct target is to raise the standard of living for all beings so that whatever family or nation one comes into the world through, the opportunities exist fairly equally to contribute to society and realize one’s potential and happiness.