[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 31 (Monday, August 7, 2000)]
[Page 1781]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7332--Helsinki Human Rights Day, 2000

August 1, 2000

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Twenty-five years ago today, in a world marked by brutal divisions 
and ideological conflict, the United States joined 33 European nations 
and Canada in signing the Helsinki Final Act. That watershed event 
established the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) 
and affirmed an international commitment to respect ``freedom of 
thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as 
to race, sex, language, or religion.''
    During the Cold War, the Helsinki Principles were the rallying point 
for courageous men and women who confronted tyranny--often at great 
personal risk--to win the fundamental freedoms set forth by the Final 
Act. Today, citizens of our vast Euro-Atlantic community from Vancouver 
to Vladivostok live by, or aspire to live, by those fundamental 
freedoms. The Helsinki Final Act has been instrumental in the progress 
we have made together toward building a Europe that is whole and free; a 
Europe where our partnership for peace is overcoming the possibility of 
war. The Helsinki Final Act continues to shape our vision for the future 
of transatlantic cooperation, and the Helsinki accords remain the basic 
definition of common goals and standards for how all countries in the 
new Europe should treat their citizens and one another.
    The evolution of the CSCE into the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reflects the changing face of Europe. The 
OSCE's integrated structure of commitments in the areas of human rights, 
economics, arms control, and conflict resolution provides a defining 
framework for a free and undivided Europe. The United States will 
continue to promote the OSCE's efforts to build security within and 
cooperation among democratic societies; to defuse conflicts; to battle 
corruption and organized crime; and to champion human rights, 
fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law throughout the Euro-Atlantic 
community. We remain committed to the OSCE's essential work of bringing 
peace and civil society back to Bosnia and Kosovo, and we are grateful 
to the many dedicated men and women engaged in the OSCE's field 
missions, who in many ways are our front line of conflict prevention in 
Europe.
    Today, as we mark the 25th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, 
the United States takes pride in remembering our role as one of its 
original signatories--a ringing call for freedom and human dignity that 
played a decisive role in lifting the Iron Curtain and ending the tragic 
division of Europe.
    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 August 1, 
2000, as Helsinki Human Rights Day and reaffirm our Nation's support for 
the full implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. I urge the American 
people to observe this anniversary with appropriate programs, 
ceremonies, and activities that reflect our dedication to the noble 
principles of human rights and democracy. I also call upon the 
governments and peoples of all other signatory states to renew their 
commitment to comply with the principles established and consecrated in 
the Helsinki Final Act.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of 
August, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence of 
the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., August 3, 
2000]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on August 
4.