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The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets the Guinness World Record
for Most Translated Document
Over
300 languages!
Forward
by Jimmy Carter
"During
the first year of my Presidency I had the honor of signing, on behalf
of the United States of America, the two international covenants
on human rights which, together with the Universal Declaration,
make up the International Bill of Human Rights.
Both
the United States and the United Nations had their origins in a
vision of greatness of the human possibility. The American Declaration of Independence speaks
of the idea that, "...all men are created equal...endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights...Life Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness..."The Charter of the United Nations
speaks of "...faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity
and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women
and nations large and small..."Though separated by a century
and a half in time, these visions are identical in spirit. The covenants
that I signed in 1977 are unusual in the world of international
politics and diplomacy. They
say absolutely nothing about power-full governments or military
alliances or the privileges and immunities of statesmen and high
official. Instead they are concerned about the rights
of individual human beings and the duties of governments to the
people they are created to serve.
The
international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights concerns what
governments must not do to their people, and the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concerns what governments
must do for their people.
By ratifying
the covenant on civil and political rights, a
government pledges, as a matter of law, to refrain from subjecting
its own people to arbitrary imprisonment or to cruel or degrading
treatment. It recognizes the right of every person to freedom
of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom
of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right
of peaceful assembly and the right to emigrate from one's country.
A government
entering this covenant states explicitly that there are sharp limits
on its own powers over the lives of its people.
But as Thomas Jefferson once wrote about the Bill of Rights
which became part of our own American Republic, "These are
fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline."
By ratifying
the other covenant on economic social and cultural rights a government
commits itself to its best efforts to secure for its citizens the
basic standards of material existence, social justice, and cultural
opportunity. This covenant recognizes the governments are
the instruments and the servants of their people.
It would
be idle to pretend that these two covenants themselves reflect the
world as it is. But to those who believe that instruments of this
kind are futile, I would suggest that there are powerful lessons
to be learned in the history of my own country.
Our
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights expressed a lofty
standard of liberty and equality.
But in practice these rights were enjoyed only by a very
small segment of our people. In the years and decades that followed those
who struggled for universal suffrage, those who struggled for the
abolition of slavery, those who struggled for women's rights, those
who struggled for racial equality-in spite of discouragement and
personal danger-drew their inspiration from these two great documents
the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, and from
our own Constitution. Because
the beliefs expressed in these documents were at the heart of what
we Americans most valued about ourselves, they created a momentum
toward the realization of the hopes that they offered.
Some of these hopes were 200years in being realized. But ultimately, because the basis was there
in the documents signed at the origin of our country/ people's discouragements
and disappointments were overcome and these dreams prevailed.
My hope
and my belief is that the international covenants and the Universal
Declaration that make up the International Bill of Human Rights
can play a similar role in the advancement of and the ultimate realization
of human rights for individual men and women throughout all nations
of the world."
Read
The Charter
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