The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: An unfinished revolution

To: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 13:29:43 -0800
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Subject: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: An unfinished revolution

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Amnesty International <[email protected]>

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: An unfinished
revolution

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
AI INDEX: ACT 30/27/97
5 December 1997
 
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
An unfinished revolution
 
by Pierre Sane
Secretary General, Amnesty International
 
Six billion! Six billion of us live on this planet. A planet so rich and
diverse, a planet which has sustained the livelihoods of billions and
billions of human beings throughout history. For some it has been a life
of riches, for many a life of rags. For some it has been a long and very
fulfilled life, for others life has been short and at times brutal. For
all those who have suffered and endured servitude and deprivation, other
human beings, and not nature, have been their greatest tormentors.
 
This is still true today.
 
Forty nine years ago today, leaders of the 56 independent states agreed
to a code of conduct delineating the equal rights and duties of all
human
beings and entrusted the protection and promotion of those rights
primarily to governments. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights born
out of the ashes of World War II was the "humanist" response to the
cries of the victims of Auschwitz and Nagasaki. The holocaust and the
nuclear bomb established that mankind had achieved the technological
capacity to destroy humanity AND the planet, and its readiness to do so.
"Never again" wrote the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. To prevent war and destruction, to guarantee peace and justice
international and national social orders had to be founded on human
rights everywhere. The world needed to pursue the dual objectives of
freedom from fear and freedom from want, for all, at once and
concurrently.
 
Almost 50 years on where are we? 1.3 billions human beings survive with
less than a dollar a day, 35,000 children die everyday of malnutrition
and preventable diseases, words that we thought had disappeared from our
vocabulary, haunt our daily conscience: genocide, ethnic cleansing, gang
rape. The ugly face of armed conflicts dominate the reality of hundreds
of millions of people in 30 countries -- one nation out of six! In most
of these wars the enemy is not necessarily an armed combatant, but
rather 'the other'. The one with a different faith, or a different
ethnic identity: the approach is to first dehumanize the enemy,
thereafter the language of rights does not apply since rights only
belong to humans, then "seek and destroy". In some societies "at peace"
the same logic is more often than not applied to criminals and migrants
from poorer nations.
 
While the language of rights has made considerable headway, while the
system of international human rights monitoring and reporting now
integrates all states and covers more and more areas, while popular
consciousness and demands about rights and obligations permeate most
societies, violations of international human rights law continue
unabated. The rich and powerful continue to do as they please, the poor
and the weak continue to endure what they must as the dogma of
neo-liberalism triumphs everywhere, and in every sphere of social
relations, and threatens even the livelihoods of future generations.
 
Protection and promotion of human rights is not just a moral imperative.
It is, as explicitly stated in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the foundation of freedom, justice and peace. For all of us six
billion inhabitants of the earth, social and economic development is
only sustainable in the long term if it enhances the dignity of all, if
it secures the equal right of men and women, if it provides for decent
standards of living and greater freedoms.
 
The world today has the resources and the knowhow to achieve these
goals. The future therefore does not have to be one of chaos and misery.
 
In 1948, a silent revolution started with a manifesto called the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With it we are facing the right
direction, all we have to do now is to keep on walking. And this is
precisely what human rights defenders throughout the world are doing and
Amnesty International has committed itself to accompany and protect
them. What about you?
 
This is our planet, for all six billion people. The resources and
knowhow are our patrimony to us all. But a human right denied to some
ultimately puts us all at risk.
 
To echo the words of Mahatma Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in
the world".
 
Why not join Amnesty International?
 
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