The civil rights awarded to millions of Americans are freedoms that protect residents of the United States from unwarranted government action. Civil rights help to ensure people's safety, physical integrity, protection from private discrimination (non-government) based on sex, age, religion and race. Civil rights also ensure Americans that they receive equal access to health care, education, culture and much more. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the year 1948. The Declaration came into being as a direct result of World War II. In the United States, citizens have greater protection when it comes to civil rights than non-citizens have, because of their citizenship within the country. The most important civil rights document ever to come into being in the United States was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation all across the country in places such as schools, workplaces, and public places.