THROUGH WEBSITE LAUNCH, UNIVERSAL DECLARATION HAS BEEN GIVEN MEANS TO TRAVEL ANY DISTANCE AT LIGHT SPEED, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS
Press Release
SG/SM/6831
HR/4399
THROUGH WEBSITE LAUNCH, UNIVERSAL DECLARATION HAS BEEN GIVEN MEANS TO TRAVEL ANY DISTANCE AT LIGHT SPEED, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS
19981210 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Following is the text of remarks made this evening by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of the launch of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Website:Let me extend a warm welcome to all of you at this landmark event, and thanks to all those who made it possible. I especially want to express the sincere gratitude of the United Nations to the Government of San Marino for its crucial support.
With the launch of this website page, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights becomes one of the most translated documents in the world.
As it turns 50 today, the Declaration comes to us in more than 260 languages.
When the drafters gave this document to succeeding generations, they did not have the benefit of basic computers, let alone the wondrous communications provided by the World Wide Web.
How right it is, therefore, that we -- so privileged to have these tools at our disposal - should use them to ensure the Declaration becomes even more universal. It is one of the best tributes the modern age can pay to the pioneering men and women of 50 years ago.
In the half century of its life, the Declaration has had universal impact.
It has inspired the constitutions of many newly independent States and many new democracies. It has become a yardstick by which we measure respect for what we know, or should know, as right and wrong.
And yet: it is often those who most need their human rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists -- and that it exists for them.
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Today, the Declaration has jumped yet more hurdles towards achieving that goal. It has crossed the language barrier many times over; it has been endowed with the means to travel any distance at the speed of light.
And so, on behalf of the United Nations, let me again thank San Marino, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Department of Public Information for giving us this new page in the history of human rights. I add the hope that it will become a page in the service of all humankind.
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