[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 29 (Monday, July 22, 2002)]
[Page 1222]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7577--Captive Nations Week, 2002

 July 17, 2002

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    The United States is proud to stand on the side of brave people 
everywhere who seek the same freedoms upon which our Nation was founded. 
Each year, during Captive Nations Week, we reaffirm our determination to 
work for freedom around the globe. Created against the backdrop of the 
Cold War, the importance and power of Captive Nations Week continues to 
resonate in today's world.
    In too many corners of the earth, freedom and independence are the 
victims of dictators driven by hatred, fear, designs of ethnic 
superiority, religious intolerance, and xenophobia. These despots deny 
their citizens the liberty and justice that is the birthright of all 
people. Some governments, such as those in North Korea, Iraq, and Iran, 
starve their people, take away their voices, traffic in terror, and 
threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction. In many other 
places, from Burma to Belarus, Cuba and Zimbabwe, people are denied the 
most basic rights to speak in freedom, and their daily lives are haunted 
by the fear of the secret police.
    This week, America reaffirms our solidarity with and support for 
people living under conditions of servitude. They are the nonnegotiable 
demands of human dignity. History teaches us that when people are given 
a choice between freedom and tyranny, freedom will win. Recently, the 
world saw this in Afghanistan, where people took to the streets to 
celebrate the fall of their Taliban oppressors. Those in other lands 
seeking to unshackle themselves from dictatorship will also have 
America's support.
    Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan said before the British 
Parliament at Westminster that ``our mission today (is) to preserve 
freedom as well as peace. It may not be easy to see; but I believe we 
live now at a turning point.'' These words were a prelude to the fall of 
the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, as the events of September 11 made 
clear, we are at another turning point, where the world faces the 
prospect of dictators supplying the world's most dangerous weapons to 
their terrorist allies. These terrorists aspire to impose their brutal 
will on freedom loving people everywhere.
    One of our greatest strengths in this struggle against a world of 
fear, chaos, and captivity is our commitment to standing alongside 
people everywhere determined to build a world of freedom, dignity, and 
tolerance. This week America affirms its commitment to helping those in 
captive nations achieve democracy.
    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.''
    Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, 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 July 21 through 27, 2002, 
as Captive Nations Week. I call upon the people of the United States to 
observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to 
reaffirm their devotion to the aspirations of all peoples for liberty, 
justice, and self-determination.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day 
of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand two, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
seventh.
                                                George W. Bush

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:23 a.m., July 18, 
2002]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on July 
19.