DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS INDISSOLUBLY LINKED SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
Press Release
SG/SM/5842
HRD/158
DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS INDISSOLUBLY LINKED SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
19951208 ADVANCE RELEASE Following is the text of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's message on the occasion of Human Rights Day, which will be commemorated on 10 December 1995:Annually on this Human Rights Day, we commemorate the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year we have been celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the world Organization. So on Human Rights Day 1995 we should recall that the Universal Declaration grew out of the Charter of the United Nations itself. It built on and codified the central message of the drafters of the Charter by setting out, clearly and explicitly, the inviolable rights of the human person.
Since its inception, the United Nations Organization has worked to extend its normative efforts not only into the field of individual rights, but also into those of economic, social and cultural rights. Now the time has come to go further. For the rule of law is meaningless unless steps are taken to ensure that it is applied judicially. That is why we should be unceasing in our efforts to encourage States to ratify international human rights laws, and why we must also do all we can to ensure that they abide by them.
Efforts of the international community to extend its jurisdiction must be stepped up. The international courts dealing with war crimes and human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda are good examples. But they are also -- unfortunately -- the reflection of deep and shameful dilemmas within the international community which show that the spectre of genocide -- which we had once thought had disappeared for ever -- is, alas, very much still with us.
So, it is more than ever necessary to make it clear that the concept of human rights makes sense only if it forms part of a political project which makes a lasting impact on the conscience of peoples and nations. That project is called democracy. My profound belief is that only democracy -- both within States, and within the Community of States -- can truly guarantee human rights. That is because democracy alone can reconcile individual and
collective rights, the rights of peoples and the rights of individuals. It is through democracy that the rights of States and the rights of the community of States are harmonized.
Democratization must therefore be a goal of the international community. And the United Nations must make every effort to make States, peoples and nations aware of this democratic necessity.
So my message today is this: democracy is the political expression of our common heritage. Democracy is for everyone. And, like human rights, democracy has a universal dimension. So democracy and human rights are goals which are indissolubly linked and which must be pursued together. And we must work untiringly for both of them. I count on your help to take the world along that path. I thank you for your work and your commitment.
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