There’s a cliché that says: It’s darkest before the dawn. Each year on 10 December, we commemorate the anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, 77 years later, this year’s Human Rights Day theme is, “Our Everyday Essentials.” And Springer Nature, as part of our focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), actively supports researchers working directly on these issues. The theme of this year’s Human Rights Day shows how human rights shape our daily lives.