By KUNA
United Nations : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would launch on Monday a year-long commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to make sure it becomes an integral part of everyone’s life.
In a message to mark Human Rights Day, to be observed Monday December 10, Ban said the entire UN family will take part in a campaign to promote the Declaration’s ideals and principles of justice and equality for everyone.
The campaign, he said, “reminds us that in a world still reeling from the horrors of the Second World War, the Declaration was the first global statement of what we now take for granted — the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings.” The Declaration, he noted, is the most translated document in the world – “a testament to its universal nature and reach.” It is now available in more than 360 languages and has inspired the constitutions of many newly independent States and many new democracies. It has become a “yardstick by which we measure respect for what we know, or should know, as right and wrong,” he said, expressing regret at the same time that the fundamental freedoms enshrined in it are still not a reality for everyone. “Too often, Governments lack the political will to implement international norms they have willingly accepted,” he said.
This anniversary year is an occasion to build up that will, he said. “It is often those who most need their human rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists — and that it exists for them.”