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Message from the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson The Universal Declaration of Human Rights serves as the cornerstone of the international community's fifty-year commitment to a truly human quality of life for all people. The opening words of the Declaration's Preamble provide the moral basis for that commitment: "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." As we commemorate the 50th Anniversary, we have an opportunity to join forces again, just as those who adopted the Universal Declaration did half a century ago, to chart a clear course for advancing effectively the fundamental rights which the Declaration holds as a "common standard of achievement for all people and all nations". To reach the goals laid out by the Universal Declaration, we must demonstrate a common will to advance all human rights, in full recognition of their interdependence and indivisibility. We will have to make a particular effort to ensure that our approaches to human rights at all levels - local, national, regional and multilateral - serve to buttress those rights. And we must find new ways to help empower those whose rights are being denied: an undeniably difficult task. There is no shortage of examples from around the world to illustrate the long road that remains to be travelled if the lives of all people are to reflect the spirit of the Universal Declaration. But the achievements of the past fifty years are also powerful indicators of what we can accomplish by working together in a spirit of mutual respect and responsibility. The UN World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, established an environment of shared commitment and ensured that 1998 would be a time not only for commemoration but also for a rigorous examination of progress. Since then, the Beijing Conference has reminded us that women's rights are human rights. The five-year review of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action provides a benchmark for assessing the extent to which the goal of universal ratification of treaties as well as other related commitments are being implemented. This review will allow us to form a clear picture of where we stand in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide and will serve as a blueprint of what is yet to be done. In my capacity as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights I have been asked to give leadership. I would like, therefore, to call upon all Governments, agencies and programmes of the United Nations system, inter-governmental as well as non-governmental organizations, private sector and voluntary groups, academic circles and media, to forge a Global Partnership for Human Rights and to strengthen new forms of solidarity for the promotion and protection of all human rights during 1998 and the years to come. |