A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
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As we celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, it is appropriate to examine how
it has affected our lives and the challenges that lie ahead in
fulfilling its noble principles. It was born out of the depths of
human desperation following World War II, when human beings
discovered how far they could go to dehumanize one another. Now,
a half century later, the majority of people on the globe freely
choose their own governments. And those democratic governments
know that they are accountable to the people who elected them and
are bound to protect the rights enshrined in the Universal
Declaration.
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This Declaration is one of the most important documents of the
20th century, indeed of human history, for it represents the
first time men and women sought to articulate the core
aspirations of all the world s people. The authors of the
Universal Declaration struggled to understand and harmonize their
differing cultural traditions and convictions during a three-year
debate that culminated in a set of rights recognized by all as
transcending national, social, and cultural boundaries. The 18
delegates who met under the wise, compassionate leadership of
Eleanor Roosevelt and framed the Universal Declaration did not
refer simply to men, or to the privileged, or to any specific
race or religion. The language of the document clearly states:
All human beings are born free and equal.
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted
the Universal Declaration without a single dissenting vote. Over
the past half century, the Declaration's 30 articles have entered
the consciousness of people around the world. They are now
invoked routinely in constitutions and courts. They set a
standard against which we must all now measure ourselves.
Threats to freedom persist, and human rights are still at risk.
In the United States, we have not completely purged ourselves of
bigotry and intolerance. Elsewhere, democracy has yet to take
root; in other places those roots are still shallow. Societies
are besieged by forces ranging from drug cartels to organized
crime. Too many women in the world suffer from wide-ranging
injustices. The right to worship according to one s conscience is
not universally honored. Even as powerful forces of the
information age are chipping away at the barriers, bringing us
closer together, there are still attempts to keep people locked
in and ideas locked out. And in too many countries, the rule of
law, including the protection of minority rights, is not
guaranteed.
The newborn child does not know how to hate. That has to be
learned. It is just as easy to nurture the values of love and
respect to ensure that all children have the opportunity to allow
their innate capabilities to flourish, to give strength to the
human spirit. There is no better way to honor the great citizens
of the world who gave us this remarkable gift, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
-- Bill Clinton
President of the United States
Issues of
Democracy
USIA Electronic Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, October
1998