[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 239 (Friday, December 12, 1997)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 65309-65310]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-32685]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 239 / Friday, December 12, 1997 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 65309]]

                Proclamation 7059 of December 9, 1997

                
Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human 
                Rights Week, 1997

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Human rights are the cornerstone of American democracy. 
                The founders of our democracy, in their wisdom, 
                recognized the inherent dignity of every human being 
                and enshrined in the Bill of Rights our profound 
                commitment to freedom of speech, religion, and assembly 
                and the right to due process and a fair trial. Through 
                more than two centuries of challenge and change, these 
                guiding principles have sustained us. They form the 
                common ground on which our racial, religious, and 
                ethnic diversity can flourish.

                It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that each 
                new generation of Americans has sought to advance and 
                extend the rights set forth by Thomas Jefferson in the 
                Declaration of Independence and by the framers of our 
                Constitution. Promoting human rights and democracy 
                around the world is a central pillar of our foreign 
                policy. We seek to protect and advance human rights for 
                all, not only because a world that respects such rights 
                will be freer, safer, and more prosperous, but also so 
                that we may keep faith with the vision of our founders, 
                who knew that these rights are the deepest reflection 
                of America's fundamental values.

                 This week marks the beginning of the world's 
                celebration of the 50th anniversary year of the 
                Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The adoption of 
                this set of principles by the United Nations on 
                December 10, 1948, was a landmark event in the course 
                of modern human history. The Declaration represented a 
                collective condemnation by nearly 50 U.N. member states 
                of the widespread and devastating human rights abuses 
                committed prior to and during World War II, and it 
                reflected a consensus on what the postwar world should 
                seek to become. Among the Declaration's 30 articles are 
                affirmations of the right to life, liberty, and 
                personal security; the right to freedom of thought, 
                religion, and expression; and the right to freedom from 
                slavery, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention.

                It was fitting that a great American, Eleanor 
                Roosevelt, played a pivotal role in the development of 
                the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which so 
                closely reflected the tenets of our own Bill of Rights. 
                As Chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, she 
                led the efforts of its 18 members to define basic 
                rights and freedoms and to draft the international 
                affirmation of rights that was ultimately adopted by 
                the General Assembly. Today, thanks to those efforts, 
                scores of countries across the globe have incorporated 
                these fundamental principles into their laws and 
                practices, and millions of people are leading freer, 
                happier, and more fulfilling lives.

                Now our challenge is to reaffirm the universality of 
                these precepts and to ensure that all the world's 
                peoples share in their protections. While we have made 
                great progress in this endeavor, we must recognize that 
                intolerance, discrimination, and persecution continue 
                to darken our vision of a better future. Each of us has 
                a part to play in upholding human rights for men and 
                women of all political, ethnic, religious, and racial 
                backgrounds. The words of Eleanor Roosevelt are both an 
                inspiration and a challenge, not only to Americans, but 
                also to citizens throughout the

[[Page 65310]]

                international community: ``The destiny of human rights 
                is in the hands of all of our citizens and all of our 
                communities.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim December 10, 1997, as Human 
                Rights Day; December 15, 1997, as Bill of Rights Day; 
                and the week beginning December 10, 1997, as Human 
                Rights Week. I call upon the people of the United 
                States to celebrate these observances with appropriate 
                programs, ceremonies, and activities that demonstrate 
                our national commitment to the Bill of Rights, the 
                Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 
                promotion of human rights for all people.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of 
                the United States of America the two hundred and 
                twenty-second.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 97-32685
Filed 12-11-97; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P