103 STAT. 2670 PROCLAMATION 5921—DEC. 8, 1988 and all Americans to observe this year with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereimto set my hand this 5th day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hun- dred and thirteenth. RONALD REAGAN Proclamation 5921 of December 8, 1988 Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human Rights Week, 1988 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation The second week in December commemorates two Important dates. December 10 marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Himfian Rights, and December 15 marks the date almost 200 years ago when, in 1791, the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution—our Bill of Rights—^were ratified. The human rights we regard today as Inherent and unalienable were by no means universally accepted 2 centiuies ago. Such rights as freedom of worship, speech, assembly, and the press were just beginning to be asserted by popular movements that would sweep Europe and else- where in the next century. The United States thus foreshadowed and fostered a powerful drive to improve the lot of mankind everywhere. During the drafting of our Constitution, Thomas Jefferson wrote that "a Bill of Rights is what people are entitled to against every government on earth." Now, 200 years later, the Universal Declaration, enshrining many of the principles of our Founders, has become that worldwide Bill of Rights. Elaborating such a list of basic rights was one of the first tasks under- taken by the new United Nations Organization; the Chair of the draft- ing committee was Eleanor Roosevelt, who was later nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for this work. Urging adoption of the Universal Dec- laration, then-Secretary of State George C. Marshall told the United Nations that "denials of basic human rights he at the root of most of oiir troubles.... Governments which systematically disregard the rights of their own people," he said, "are not likely to respect the rights of other nations and other people." He called for adoption of the Uni- versal Declaration as "a standard of conduct for us all." The Universal Declaration, like our own BUI of Rights, starts from the premises that civil liberties and political freedom are the birthright of all mankind and that all of us are equal in the eyes of the law. Like our own Declaration of Independence, it also makes the Inescapable con- nection between freedom, human rights, and government by the con- sent of the governed. We are proud that the truths expressed by our Founding Fathers— America's source of strength, stability, and authority for more than 2
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