From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/11/2005 1:58 AM
Editorial: For all people – Human rights declaration offers noble call

 Friday, December 09, 2005

Saturday marks the 57th anniversary of a global milestone. On Dec. 10, 1948, the United Nations approved its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark document that called for the liberty and dignity of all people to be respected by the sovereign nations of the world.

The principles set forth in that declaration – honoring freedom, security and opportunity – remain powerful ideas, but still are not shared by all the world's people. Human Rights Day, recognized Saturday, reminds us that the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice continues. The noble nature of these beliefs should compel all people to work toward their peaceful growth around the globe.

The United Nations was born in the aftermath of the second World War, and was envisioned as a forum where all nations could gather to resolve disputes in a peaceable manner. There was hope that, given the horror and destruction the world had seen over the past decade, the founding of that organization could usher in a new era of understanding, tolerance and reason.

Those ideas are manifested in the U.N.'s human rights declaration. It sets forth the rights of all people to be free in body and thought. It advances the cause of tolerance, justice, equality and compassion to all. And it seeks to eradicate slavery, cruelty, inhumanity and hate by calling on nations to limit such practices.

Yet, those goals have yet to be realized. Following World War II, the yoke of communism weighed heavily on eastern Europe as the Iron Curtain fell around nearly half of the world. Global politics organized around two poles – one for freedom and democracy, and one for oppression and tyranny.

The Cold War ended with the fall of communism, but new international conflicts echo old behaviors. Genocide in Rwanda and Yugoslavia horrified the world, violating nearly every standard of decency. Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Kosovo, Chechnya, Somalia and countless other locales have deprived millions of life, liberty and freedom. And the scourge of international terrorism, especially that perpetrated by radical Islamic extremists, is the very definition of inhumanity.

However, the U.N.'s declaration inspires the world to strive to do better, and that is an ambitious goal that cannot be erased.

This year, the United Nations has chosen to highlight the need to eradicate torture, a sound message at a very troublesome time. America finds itself debating the methods by which it seeks to achieve security and how the treatment of its prisoners and detainees reflects on itself. But the United States is unique in that debate on the subject is allowed and public. In other nations around the world, torture is a reality against which there is no recourse.

And the fight for human rights is larger than one issue and greater than one nation. A world that fails to honor these basic principles cannot sustain itself. So Saturday should serve as a reminder that what the United Nations articulated 57 years ago, present and future generations must practice.

http://www.reflector.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/12/09/20051209GDRedit.html