[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 29 (Monday, July 25, 1994)]
[Pages 1491-1492]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6706--Captive Nations Week, 1994

July 15, 1994

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    This year marks the 35th commemoration of ``Captive Nations Week,'' 
our national expression of support for the people of the world who 
continue to suffer the yoke of oppressive governments. Freedom has made 
great strides in recent years, thanks to the quiet heroism of countless 
men and women. Yet far too many members of the human family still live 
in the shadows, shackled and intimidated in regimes of fear, and we must 
keep faith with them.
    For over 200 years, this Nation has worked to realize the vision of 
freedom articulated by our founders, and before them by thinkers 
throughout the ages. Our commitment to the eternally-unfolding meaning 
and spirit of liberty expresses not only our most cherished values, but 
also our best hope for long-term international stability.
    Freedom is a work in process. The people of the former Soviet bloc 
are making the arduous transition to free societies and free markets, 
and we will endeavor to support them as best we can. Less outwardly 
dramatic, but no less moving, are the democratic transitions that have 
taken place in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and there too, we will 
do what we can.
    But great numbers of men and women are still not free. 
Authoritarianism still wields an iron grip over the lives of millions. 
And in this new time we are confronted by the alarming specter of 
racial, ethnic, and religious animosities and violence. It is thus all 
the more reason for us to recommit ourselves to the work of promoting 
respect for universal human rights and for political freedom for people 
of all races, creeds, and nationalities the world over.
    The Congress, by Joint Resolution approved July 17, 1959 (73 Stat. 
212), has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation 
designating the third week in July of each year as ``Captive Nations 
Week.''

[[Page 1492]]

    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim July 17 through July 23, 1994, as 
Captive Nations Week. I call upon the people of the United States to 
observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities, and in so 
doing to rededicate ourselves to the principles of freedom and justice 
on which this Nation was founded and by which we will endure.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day 
of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
nineteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:16 p.m., July 18, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on July 
20. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.