Although the United Nations had long been active in the field of human rights, the Vienna conference was only the second global conference to focus exclusively on human rights, with the first having been the International Conference on Human Rights held in Teheran, Iran, during April–May 1968 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
虽然联合国多年来活跃在人权领域， 但像世界人权大会这样仅专注于人权的全球会议仅是第二次：1968年4月至5月，第一次国际人权会议举办于伊朗德黑兰，当时是为纪念《世界人权宣言》发布二十周年。