Ramsey Clark
on the
Fiftieth Anniversary
of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Ramsey Clark was the keynote speaker, in Baghdad, Iraq on
December 2, 1998, at a conference on the fiftieth anniversary
of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This is his keynote address.
"The world has never had a good definition of the word
liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of
one. We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we
do not all mean the same thing." So observed Abraham Lincoln
at, for him, the darkest moment of the American Civil War. He
had just received reports of the massacre of 800 Union soldiers,
former slaves whose ancestors were brought from Africa in chains.
They were the first such unit to be engaged in combat. Caught
and overwhelmed at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee on the Mississippi river
by a much larger Confederate cavalry force under Nathan Bedford
Forrest, every man was killed. Forrest reported the river ran
red for hundreds of yards. After the war Forrest was a founder
of the Ku Klux Klan and engaged in racist violence for two decades.
Four score and four years after the Ft. Pillow massacre, in
the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December
10, 1948, the U.N. General Assembly found "a common understanding
of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance,"
and proclaimed its declaration in order to provide "a good
definition."
The Universal Declaration was dominated by the experience,
concerns, interests and values of a narrow segment of the "people
of the United Nations," primarily the governments of the
rich nations, primarily the United States, England and France.
It emphasized political rights developed over centuries from their
histories with little concern for economic, social and cultural
rights. Still it was and remains an important contribution in
the continuing struggle for justice.
In the fifth paragraph of its preamble the Declaration notes
the United Nations has affirmed "... the dignity and worth
of the human person and the equal rights of men and women and
have determined to promote social progress and better standards
of life in larger freedom." Article 1 provides "All
human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Article 5 states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or
to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
Article 25 declares, "(1) Everyone has the right to a standard
of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and
of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care..."
The United States government pays lip service to the Declaration,
but its courts have consistently refused to enforce its provisions
reasoning it is not a legally binding treaty, or contract, but
only a declaration. This ignores the fact that international law
recognizes the provisions of the Declaration as being incorporated
into customary international law which is binding on all nations.
The most fundamental, dangerous and harmful violation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights on its fifteenth birthday
is economic sanctions imposed on entire populations. The United
States alone blockades eleven million Cubans in the face of the
most recent General Assembly resolution approved by 157 nations
condemning the blockade, with only the United States and Israel
in opposition. The entire population of Cuba and every Cuban has
had the "right to a standard of living adequate for health
and well being... including food, clothing, housing and medical
care" deliberately violated by the United States blockade
Security Council sanctions against Iraq, which are forced
by the United States, have devastated the entire nation, taking
the lives of more than 1,500,000 people, mostly infants, children,
chronically ill and elderly, and harming millions more by hunger,
sickness and sorrow. The sanctions destroy the "dignity and
rights" of the people of Iraq and are the most extreme form
of "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," which are
prohibited by the Declaration.
Despite the cruelest destruction of the most basic human rights
and liberties of all the people in Iraq, including rights to medicine,
safe drinking water and sufficient food, the United States government,
with the major mass media in near perfect harmony, proclaims itself
the world's champion of liberty and human rights. The problem
as Lincoln surely knew is not merely one of definitions. It is
a problem of power, will and accountability. The United States
intends to have its way and serve its own interests, with Iraq,
Cuba, Libya, Iran, the Sudan and many other countries whatever
the consequences to the liberties and rights of those who live
there.
The United States control over and its concerted action with
the mass media enables it to demonize such countries, its victims,
for "terrorism," threats to world peace and human rights
violations at the very time it rains Tomahawk cruise missiles
on them and motivates and finances armed insurrections and violence
against them. At the same time the United States increases its
own staggeringly large prison industry, more than a million persons
confined, including 40% of all African American males between
17 and 27 years old in the State of California. Simultaneously
the U.S. spends more on its military than the ten largest military
budgets of other nations combined, sells most of the arms and
sophisticated weapons still increasing worldwide while rejecting
an international convention to prohibit land mines and an international
court of criminal justice. And the U.S. maintains and deploys
the great majority of all weapons of mass destruction existent
on earth, nuclear, chemical, biological and the most deadly of
all -- economic sanctions.
It is imperative that clear definitions of all fundamental
rights of people, be clearly inscribed in international law, including
economic rights which are most basic to human need and on which
all other rights are dependent and rights to freedom from military
aggression by a super-power or its surrogates.
But without a passionate commitment by the people of the United
States and other major powers to stop their own governments from
violating those definitions of human rights, hold them accountable
for their acts and to prevent their own media from seducing them
into acceptance or complacency, there will be no protection for
the poor and powerless and no correspondence between the words
of rich and powerful nations and their deeds.
We can be thankful for the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, but together the people of the world must do better to
define and protect the humanity of the people.
Ramsey Clark International Action Center 39 West 14 Street,
Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: iacenter@iacenter.org http://www.iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org/iraqchallenge/ phone: (212) 633-6646 fax:
(212) 633-2889
Human Rights, Justice, Reform
International Criminal
Court