[hr-education] Human Rights Day message of Bertrand Ramcharan

UNITED NATIONS
Press Release

xxxxxxxxxx	HUMAN RIGHTS DAY MESSAGE OF ACTING UNITED NATIONS HIGH
COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS	xxxxxxxxxx

Poverty, Conflicts, Terrorism, Violence, Prejudice and Bad Governance
Grossly Violate Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan Says

Following is the message of acting High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Bertrand Ramcharan, on Human Rights Day which is commemorated on 10
December 2003:


"We must all be deeply distressed and anguished on this Human Rights Day
that, 10 years after the solemn commitments of the Vienna World Conference
on Human Rights (1993), human rights are grossly violated throughout the
world because of poverty, conflicts, terrorism, violence, prejudice and bad
governance.

Notwithstanding the lofty commitments in the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action, and the more recent commitment to human rights values
in the Millennium Declaration (2000), the universality of human rights
remains formal rather than real in the contemporary world. Inequalities and
injustices against women and children are commonplace, and racism and
racial discrimination have far from receded.

Poverty has not declined. On the contrary, for nearly a billion people the
economic, social and cultural rights of the Universal Declaration, whose
fifty-fifth anniversary we commemorate this year, will remain illusory.
They will hardly be able to survive and many will not live to the age of
fifty-five. Democracy, the rule of law, and respect for civil and political
rights are distant from the wretched poor of the earth. The struggle
against poverty must remain at the forefront of the human rights movement.

In today's world civilians are deliberately targeted in conflicts and the
rules of international human rights and humanitarian laws are flouted with
impunity. Contemporary conflicts wreak havoc on the human rights of
millions. It is therefore of the utmost urgency to intensify efforts for
the prevention of conflicts – nationally, regionally and internationally.
The prevention of conflicts means the prevention of gross violations of
human rights.

Terrorism, alas, adds to the burdens of the world's peoples. The Security
Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights have all
soundly condemned terrorism. Terrorists kill, maim, terrify and threaten
without compunction. The international human rights movement must speak out
against terrorism with all the force at its command.

Violence, deliberately perpetrated by authorities on their subjects,
afflicts millions of the world's people. Torture, arbitrary and summary
executions, enforced and involuntary disappearances, arbitrary detention,
and the ill-treatment of minorities, indigenous populations and migrants
are widespread. Thousands of young women are trafficked into prostitution
and slavery. The sexual exploitation of children is a blight on our
civilization. We continue to experience a crisis of values among humankind.
The international human rights movement must denounce gross violations of
human rights wherever they occur. It is a duty of conscience.

Prejudice, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism,
anti-Islamism, anti-other religions, and other forms of intolerance are
prevalent in our midst – often in the heart of societies that profess faith
in the ideals of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Governments profess tolerance while their
people hate those of a different complexion or culture. The struggle for
equality and non-discrimination must be a rallying struggle of the human
rights movement.

Let us be honest and recognize that bad governance is at the root of many
of the afflictions of the world's peoples and of the gross violations of
human rights that are rampant in the contemporary world. Equity and the
stronger protection of human rights demand better governance. In the words
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the will of the people must
be the basis of the authority of government. This will should be expressed
in periodic and genuine elections by universal and equal suffrage in free
voting procedures.

On this Human Rights Day, my heart goes out to the victims of human rights
violations the world over. I plead for the cessation of these pervasive
violations of human rights. I plead for the world of the Universal
Declaration to become reality for all the world's peoples on the ground. I
plead for democracy, for the rule of law, and for justice.

I plead for stronger measures of protection, nationally, regionally and
internationally. I call upon each Government to review the adequacy of its
protection mechanisms at home. I call upon subregional and regional
organizations to ask what more they could do to strengthen human rights
protection. I call upon the Security Council, the General Assembly, the
Economic and Social Council, the Commission on Human Rights and the human
rights treaty bodies, each to consider what more it could do to strengthen
human rights protection.

We have not yet attained the world of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. But I am convinced that one day we shall. The promise of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights beckons us to a better world. Today,
I plead for stronger human rights protection".




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