[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 28 (Monday, July 19, 1999)]
[Pages 1384-1385]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7209--Captive Nations Week, 1999

July 16, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    This month Americans mark 223 years of freedom from tyranny. We 
celebrate the vision of our founders who, in signing the Declaration of 
Independence, proclaimed the importance of liberty, the value of human 
dignity, and the need for a new form of government dedicated to the will 
of the people. As heirs to that legacy and the fortunate citizens of a 
democratic Nation, we continue to cherish the values of freedom and 
equality. Many people across the globe, however, are still denied the 
rights we exercise daily and too often take for granted. During Captive 
Nations Week, we reaffirm our solidarity with those around the world who 
suffer under the shadow of dictators and tyrants.
    Americans have expressed their devotion to freedom and human rights 
through actions as well as words, having fought and died for these 
ideals time and again. In World 
War II, we battled the brutality of fascism. In Korea, Vietnam, and 
throughout the Cold War, we stood up to the despotism of communism. In 
the Persian Gulf, and in partnership with our NATO allies in the skies 
over Serbia and Kosovo, we have fought brutal and oppressive regimes.
    Thanks to our strength and resolve and the courage of countless men 
and women in countries around the world, we can be proud that the list 
of captive nations has grown smaller. The fall of the Berlin Wall a 
decade ago finally enabled us to pursue democratic reform in Central and 
Eastern Europe and to lay the firm foundations of freedom, peace, and 
prosperity. And in countries around the world, from South Africa to 
South Korea to South America, democracy is flourishing, and citizens 
enjoy the liberty to seek their own destiny.
    The post-Cold-War world, however, confronts us with a new set of 
dangers to freedom--threats such as civil wars, terrorism, and ethnic 
cleansing. There are still rulers in the world who refuse to join the 
march toward freedom, who believe that the only way to govern is with an 
iron fist, and who rely on reprehensible practices like arbitrary 
detention, forced labor, torture, and execution to subjugate their 
people.
    As we observe this Captive Nations Week, let us once again reaffirm 
our profound commitment to freedom and universal human rights. Let us 
continue to promote tolerance, justice, and equality and to speak out 
for those who have no voice. Let us rededicate ourselves to the growth 
of democracy and the rule of law; and let us resolve that in the next 
century we will foster the further expansion of the rights and freedoms 
with which Americans have been blessed for so long.
    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 1385]]

    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim July 18 through July 24, 1999, as 
Captive Nations Week. I call upon the people of the United States to 
observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to 
rededicate ourselves to supporting the cause of freedom, human rights, 
and self-determination for all the peoples of the world.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day 
of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., July 21, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
July 22.