From the U.S. Congress

On September 14, a resolution was passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives, with the concurrence of the U.S. Senate, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution affirmed "the commitment of the United States to the fundamental human rights enunciated a half century ago" and expressed "the determination to work for the implementation of, and observance of, international human rights and international human rights agreements."

Following are some thoughts on the Universal Declaration from Representative Tom Lantos (Democrat-California), co-chairman of the House Human Rights Caucus, and Senator Alfonse D'Amato (Republican-New York), co-chairman of the Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as the text of the resolution.

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The Honorable Tom Lantos, U.S. House of Representives

Fifty years is a long time, and it is most appropriate for us to recommit ourselves and this body and our nation to this vital document. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the most monumental events in the history of human rights. It is the accepted international definition of human rights, and the Declaration continues to serve as the basis for subsequent international human rights law and treaties. And it is the critical starting point for future international agreements on human rights.

Now I am not naive, and I understand that in scores of countries, this Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not observed. But that painful fact makes it all the more important that we recommit ourselves in a solemn way to the principles embodied in this document.

The drafters of the Universal Declaration were not concerned with inventing new political concepts and rights that would be granted or extended to people around the world; rather, they were concerned with defining the fundamental rights that are at the root of our human nature, rights that are the essence of our humanity. The purpose of the Universal Declaration was to enumerate these rights and to establish the standards that all nations should observe.

The nations that founded the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference in 1945, the city I have the honor to represent in this body with my friend the gentlewoman from California (Representative Nancy Pelosi), came to the conclusion that new tools and international mechanisms were needed to protect the basic rights of all human beings. They directly responded to the atrocities of World War II committed by Nazi Germany and others, where fundamental rights were violated in an unprecedented and systematic attack that produced inconceivable levels of human suffering.

In 1946, the United Nations established the Commission on Human Rights, the principal decision-making body charged with the global defense of human rights. The first chair of the Human Rights Commission was Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Under her inspired leadership, this commission took it upon itself to develop a comprehensive and universal catalogue of human rights definitions that could serve as the basis for future legal codifications in the defense of human rights.

After almost 1,400 rounds of voting on practically every word in the draft declaration, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, in Paris at the Palais de Chaillot. Hence, we annually celebrate December 10 as International Human Rights Day. Subsequently some 60 human rights treaties and declarations were negotiated at the United Nations on the basis of the Universal Declaration.

Unfortunately, many of the rights enunciated in the Universal Declaration are under attack across the globe. I urge my colleagues to join me and continue our fight for all human rights for all human beings, even if that means from time to time making some unpopular decisions. As the sole remaining superpower, we have a special global obligation to the poor, to the tortured, to the prosecuted, to the persecuted, to the refugees and the voiceless. Anything less than full commitment to these human rights would be a betrayal of our own convictions and beliefs as a nation and of our responsibilities spelled out in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

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The Honorable Alfonse D'Amato, United States Senate

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Visionaries like Eleanor Roosevelt and René Cassin had succeeded in creating a document that confirmed the dignity of all human beings. The Universal Declaration's first 50 years have left an enduring legacy. The Declaration shattered the idea that national sovereignty shields governments from scrutiny of their human rights records. Previously, any country could claim that how it treated its own residents was strictly an internal affair, and thus immune from international review. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Universal Declaration captured the world's revulsion against that traditional norm of international relations and created a new norm: How a state treats its own people is a legitimate concern of all states and is not only an internal affair.

The Universal Declaration listed inalienable and universal rights that could be the subject of scrutiny. Expanding on the references to human rights contained in the UN Charter, the Declaration provided the foundation upon which every regional and global human rights agreement has been built. Although support for the Declaration was originally withheld by a small number of countries, it is today considered universally binding on all countries, including all newly created states. While countries may interpret the Universal Declaration in self-serving ways, none dares renounce it.

But the battle for respect for these rights is not yet won. After the end of the Cold War, old antagonisms and new ambitions have fueled bloody genocides and supported lesser violations of human rights around the world from Kosovo to Sudan to Burma. Much work remains to be done to make these rights real and effective for all human beings. While declared universal, these rights also embody fundamentally American values and thus have the full support of the American people.

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Text of the Resolution

WHEREAS on December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, after it was adopted by the General Assembly without a dissenting vote;

WHEREAS the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was modeled on the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution and it was developed with strong United States leadership, and in particular the personal involvement of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, who served as chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission;

WHEREAS the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets forth fundamental human rights including the right to life, liberty, and security of person; freedom of religion; freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of assembly; self-government through free elections; freedom from slavery and torture; the right to a fair trial and to equality before the law; presumption of innocence until proved guilty; the right not to be subjected to retroactive laws; freedom of movement within one's state and freedom to leave or return to it; the right of asylum; the right to a nationality; the right to found a family; the right against arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence; the right to own property, to social security and to work; the right to form and join trade unions; the right to an adequate standard of living, to education, and to rest and leisure; and the right to participation in the cultural life of the community;

WHEREAS the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has become the most widely accepted statement identifying human rights and is referred to in resolutions and covenants adopted by numerous international organizations, in multilateral and bilateral treaties, in national constitutions, and in local laws and decrees; and

WHEREAS the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though it is not a treaty or a binding international agreement, is "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations":

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that the Congress:

1. reaffirms the commitment of the United States to the fundamental human rights enunciated half a century ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which are a reflection of the fundamental civil and human rights that are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and in the United States Constitution, and in particular in the Bill of Rights;
   
2. expresses the determination to work for the implementation of and observance of international human rights and international human rights agreements; and
   
3. urges the government leaders of all nations, representatives of private international human rights organizations, business and labor leaders, local government officials, and all Americans to use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an instrument to promote tolerance, understanding and greater respect for human rights.

Passed by the House of Representatives
September 14, 1998



From the United Nations

Kofi Annan is the seventh person to serve as secretary-general of the United Nations. Since taking office for a four-year term on December 1, 1997, Secretary-General Annan has spoken many times and on several continents about human rights. Following are some of his thoughts on human rights, taken from various addresses. These and others appear on the United Nations home page under the heading The Quotable Kofi Annan.

Mary Robinson became the United Nations' second high commissioner for human rights on September 12, 1997. Two months later, on November 11, she delivered the Romanes Lecture 1997 at Oxford University in England, in which she reflected on the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mrs. Robinson previously served as president of the Republic of Ireland from 1990 until 1997. Excerpts from her address at Oxford follow the secretary-general's comments.




Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations

I am aware of the fact that some view [the concern for human rights] as a luxury of the rich countries for which Africa is not ready. I know that others treat it as an imposition, if not a plot, by the industrialized West. I find these thoughts truly demeaning, demeaning of the yearning for human dignity that resides in every African heart.

-- Address to the Annual Assembly of Heads of State and      
Government of the Organization of African Unity      
Harare, 2 June 1997      


Do not African mothers weep when their sons or daughters are killed or maimed by agents of repressive rule? Are not African fathers saddened when their children are unjustly jailed or tortured? Is not Africa as a whole impoverished when even one of its brilliant voices is silenced?

-- Address to the Annual Assembly of Heads of State and      
Government of the Organization of African Unity      
Harare, 2 June 1997      


Freedom knows no borders.... a fiery voice of liberty in one country can raise the spirits of another far away.

-- Address at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library      
Boston, 6 June 1997      


Violence against women has become the most pervasive human rights violation, respecting no distinction of geography, culture or wealth.

-- Address to the UN General Assembly      
on the opening of the 52nd session      
New York, 22 September 1997      


Let there be no doubt: There are some very basic standards of human behavior, violations of which are simply unacceptable. Fundamental human rights are a product of human nature -- indeed human life -- itself.

-- Address to the Facing History and Ourselves benefit      
New York, 14 October 1997      


Where slavery exists, human dignity itself is denied, and brings shame to all who claim to be compassionate or committed to the weak and the vulnerable of our world. Human rights are nothing if not the insistence on freedom from bondage and coercion in all aspects of life. And yet, on the threshold of a new millennium, we still find the old and, sadly, also new forms of slavery. Hundreds of thousands of people the world over live and die as slaves in one form or another.

-- Message on the International Day for the      
Abolition of Slavery      
2 December 1997      


When we speak of the right to life, or development, or to dissent and diversity, we are speaking of tolerance. Tolerance promoted, protected and enshrined will ensure all freedoms. Without it, we can be certain of none. In the words of one wise man: Faith elicits respect and fanaticism provokes hate....

Human rights are the expression of those traditions of tolerance in all cultures that are the basis of peace and progress.... Human rights...are foreign to no culture and native to all nations.... Tolerance and mercy have always and in all cultures been ideals of government rule and human behavior. Today, we call these values human rights.

-- Address at the University of Tehran on Human Rights Day      
Tehran, 10 December 1997      


One cannot pick and choose among human rights, ignoring some while insisting on others. Only as rights equally applied can they be rights universally accepted. Nor can they be applied selectively or relatively, or as a weapon with which to punish others. Their purity is their eternal strength.

-- Address at the University of Tehran on Human Rights Day      
Tehran, 10 December 1997      


There is no single model of democracy, or of human rights or of cultural expression for all the world. But for all the world, there must be democracy, human rights and free cultural expression.

-- Address at the University of Tehran on Human Rights Day      
Tehran, 10 December 1997      


When we talk of human rights being a Western concept, doesn't the Iranian mother or the African mother cry when their son or daughter is tortured? Don't we all feel when one of our leaders is unjustly imprisoned? Don't we all suffer from the lack of the rule of law and from arbitrariness? What is foreign about that? What is Western about that? And when we talk of the right to development. the need to live their lives to the fullest and to be able to live their dreams, it is universal.... When you talk to the individuals, have you ever come across a victim, somebody who has been tortured, talking against human rights? Do you hear the people generally rejecting human rights which are intended to protect them? Everything we do, whether it is economic development, whether it is security or whatever, it is a human being that is at the center. And that is what we mean when we talk about human rights, when we talk about cultural expression, political rights, economic rights.

-- Press conference at the Summit of the Organization      
of the Islamic Conference      
Tehran, Iran, 11 December 1997      


We should reaffirm the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and get the public to understand, the individual to understand, that those rights are his. It is not something that is given to him by a government, like a subsidy that can be taken away. It is intrinsic, it is inherent, and [I hope] we can really use this fiftieth anniversary to get that message across.

-- Press Conference at UN Headquarters      
24 February 1998      

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Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Next year we mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration, I believe, ranks as one of the great aspirational documents of our human history. It embodies the hopes and even dreams of people still scarred from two world wars, newly fearful of the Cold War and just beginning the great liberation of peoples that came about with the dismantling of the European empires.

The Universal Declaration proclaims the fundamental freedoms of thought, opinion, expression and belief, and enshrines the core right of participatory and representative government. But just as firmly and with equal emphasis, it proclaims economic, social and cultural rights, and the right to equal opportunity. It was to be "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations," and the rights and freedoms set forth therein were to be enjoyed by all without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Twenty years after its adoption, the basic tenets of the Declaration were endorsed in the Tehran Proclamation of 1968. These rights and freedoms were developed in greater detail in two United Nations Covenants, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which entered into force in 1976.

The Universal Declaration is a living document. To commemorate it in the closing years of this millennium, the debate must give more priority to current complex human rights issues: The right to development, the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples, the rights and empowerment of people with disabilities, gender mainstreaming and issues of benchmarks and accountability in furtherance of these and other rights.

There are now many more participating governments than were present on 10 December 1948 and also many more voices from the wider civil society. The challenge will be to engender a similar commitment to a shared vision that these rights are encompassed in the opening words of the preamble to the Universal Declaration:


"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world...." And that they form part of a renewal in our time of that vision.

The international system's achievements to date in implementing human rights standards cry out for fresh approaches. As we prepare for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration, I have told my colleagues that I do not see this as an occasion for celebration. Count up the results of 50 years of human rights mechanisms, 30 years of multibillion-dollar development programs, and endless high-level rhetoric, and the global impact is quite underwhelming.

We still have widespread discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religious belief and sexual orientation, and there is still genocide -- twice in this decade alone. There are 48 countries with more than one-fifth of the population living in what we have grown used to calling "absolute poverty."

This is a failure of implementation on a scale that shames us all. So much effort, money and hopes have produced such modest results. It is no longer enough to hide behind the impact of the Cold War and other factors limiting international action in the past. It's time instead for a lessons-learned exercise. One lesson we need to learn and to reflect in our approach, is that the essence of rights is that they are empowering....

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Copyright ¨ 1997 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland.



From Four Human Rights Defenders

At the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 15, 1998, guests of the U.S. delegation to the Commission on Human Rights and the U.S. Information Service in Geneva met to celebrate the release of a draft report on Human Rights Defenders prepared by a United Nations working group. Joining those assembled, via videotape, were three of today's most valiant defenders of human rights -- Kim Dae Jung, president of the Republic of Korea; Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic; and Aung San Suu Kyi, general secretary of the National League for Democracy in Burma.

In addition, on September 21, 1998, another hero of the struggle for human rights, Nelson Mandela, president of the Republic of South Africa, shared his thoughts on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the United Nations General Assembly.

Excerpts from the remarks of these four internationally known defenders of human rights follow.

Kim Dae Jung, President of the Republic of Korea

Since the beginning of time, wherever there have been human beings there have been human rights.

Wherever there was power, human rights were infringed upon. Wherever there was some infringement of human rights, there have been those who fought to defend them. They are our heroes.

Jesus Christ said: Those who serve the least of these my brethren, who are suffering and ill-treated, serve God. And those who did not serve them, they did not serve God, and that they would be rewarded or punished accordingly.

The Buddha proclaimed that an individual personality is the most noble thing in this universe.

The Confucian tradition asserted that subjects have the right on behalf of all humans to expel a king who infringes on the rights of the people.

With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 50 years ago, the countries of the world recognized human rights to be universal and fundamental. Since that time, numerous human rights organizations, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, and human rights fighters have made enormous sacrifices and strenuous efforts in the defense of the rights of repressed people throughout the world.

I believe firmly that so long as such sacrifices and efforts for mankind continue, the human rights of all suffering people will expand day by day. I was persecuted by dictators for 40 years. I fought for human rights undauntedly, surviving five brushes with death and experiencing six years in prison and 10 years of exile or house arrest.

From this day on, for the rest of my life, I will continue to devote myself to furthering human rights.

I am grateful to all my friends around the world who are fighting in the defense of human rights.

God bless you all.

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Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic

I always emphasize again and again that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, similarly as after all a number of other documents and legal norms of this kind, is something more than a technical agreement.

That it is a mirror of certain values; values we profess, we believe in, values that seem to be bestowed upon us from above, values we also in a way guarantee.

That is the difference between truth, value, ideal on one hand, and information on the other hand. Information is freely transferable, it can flit on the Internet from one computer to another through cables. Truth must be guaranteed; it is guaranteed by human beings.

That is why I consider it very important that we do not forget those who fight for human rights, those who are able to bring even certain personal sacrifice to this fight.

For it is they who by their very being, as people really guarantee those values, who bear witness to the fact that what is at stake is more than some kind of information, that it is truly the truth.

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Aung San Suu Kyi,
General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, Burma

The case for human rights is hardly one that should need to be argued, and yet again and again we have to appeal to the world to think of human rights, to remind them that it is pertinent to all human beings, not just to a few of us in underprivileged countries. The case of human rights is the case of human dignity, of human security, of human beings. Because we are all human beings, I think we should all care about whether or not there are people in this world who are suffering because we cannot live as human beings. Repressed human beings are not the same as those who are free and secure. Something happens to us when we are repressed, when we are intimidated, when we have to worry every day about our security.

The case for Burma is not just for one country. It is a case for all those who are suffering under authoritarian regimes. The sufferings of our people are the sufferings of all those whose human dignity is not protected by the law. I hope that in arguing the case of Burma, I shall be arguing the case for all peoples in the world who are suffering from violations of human rights.

It is difficult to select what to talk about when we bring up the case of human rights violations in Burma. There are so many violations of so many kinds. But I think many of these have been made known to the international community by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, by other human rights organizations, by NGOs and by those who are working for democracy in Burma.

We are working for democracy in Burma not because we think that democracy is a magic word that will resolve all the problems of our country. We are working for democracy because we understand that democracy is a system which believes in the protection of the basic human rights of the people. Unless our people enjoy basic human rights, we will not enjoy peace or prosperity in this country.

I would like to conclude by thanking the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and all the NGOs who have done so much for the human rights situation in Burma. It does make a difference that the international community is keeping an eye -- I hope more than one eye -- on Burma and the situation of human rights in Burma. I hope that you will continue to do so. I hope that you will persevere in spite of all the obstacles in your way, because it does help us a great deal.

Thank you.

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Nelson Mandela, President of the Republic of South Africa

Quite appropriately, this 53rd General Assembly will be remembered through the ages as the moment at which we marked and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Born in the aftermath of the defeat of the Nazi and fascist crime against humanity, this Declaration held the hope that all of our society would in the future be built on the foundations of the glorious vision spelled out in each of its clauses.

For those who had to fight for their emancipation, such as ourselves, who, with your help, had to free ourselves from the criminal apartheid system, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the vindication of the justice of our cause. At the same time, it constituted a challenge to us that our freedom, once achieved, should be dedicated to the implementation of the perspective contained in the Declaration.

Today we celebrate the fact that this historic document has survived a turbulent five decades that have seen some of the most extraordinary developments in the evolution of human society. These include the collapse of the colonial system, the passing of a bipolar world, breathtaking advances in science and technology, and the achievement of the complex process of globalization.

And yet, at the end of it all, the human beings who were the subject of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights continue to be afflicted by wars and violent conflict. They have as yet not attained their freedom from fear of death that will be brought about by the use of weapons of mass destruction, as well as conventional arms. Many are still unable to exercise the fundamental and inalienable democratic rights that would enable them to participate in the determination of the destiny of their countries, nations, families, and children, and to protect themselves from tyranny and dictatorship.

The very right to be human is denied every day to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty and the unavailability of basic necessities such as food, jobs, water and shelter, education, health care and a healthy environment. The failure to achieve the vision contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights finds dramatic expression in the contrast between wealth and poverty, which characterizes the divide between the countries of the North and the countries of the South, and within individual countries in all hemispheres.

It is made especially poignant and challenging by the fact that this coexistence of wealth and poverty, the perpetuation of the practice of the resolution of inter- and intrastate conflicts... and the denial of the democratic rights of many across the world, all result from the acts of commission and omission, particularly by those who occupy positions of leadership in politics, in the economy and in other fields of human activity.

What I'm trying to say is that all these social ills, which constitute an offense against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are not a preordained result of the forces of nature.... They are the consequences of decisions that men and women take or refuse to take, all of whom will not hesitate to pledge their devoted support for the vision conveyed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This Declaration was proclaimed as universal precisely because the founders of this organization and the nations of the world who joined hands to fight the scourge of fascism, including many who still had to achieve their own emancipation, understood this clearly, that our human world was an interdependent whole.

Necessarily, the value of happiness, justice, human dignity, peace and prosperity have a universal obligation, because each people and every individual is entitled to them.

Similarly, no people can truly say it is blessed with happiness, peace and prosperity, where others, as human as itself, continue to be afflicted with misery and conflict, and terrorism and deprivation.

Thus can we say that the challenge posed by the next 50 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the next century whose character it must help to fashion, consists in whether humanity, and especially those who will occupy positions of leadership, will have the courage to ensure that at last we build a human world consistent with the provisions of that historic Declaration and other human rights instruments that have been adopted since 1948.

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Transcript provided by: Federal News Service, 620 National Press Bldg., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-1400/ INFO@FNS_6.com. Copyright © 1998 Federal News Service.



Issues of Democracy
USIA Electronic Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, October 1998