'Need for more progress on human rights'

HT Correspondent (Washington, December 11)

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, honouring Human Rights Day yesterday, pointed out that although human rights had spread around the world and new democracies had emerged, there were still too many places where human rights and democracy were elusive.

Albright said there were lessons inherent in the achievements of the past.

“In Kosovo, we learnt that the international community can come together to prevent wholesale human rights abuses. In East Timor, we learnt that concerted action by the UN can prevent military units from overturning the will of a people.”

“We have learnt that while there is no single model for democracy, basic human rights are universal. What a country does to people within its own borders is not solely its own business. Everyone, whether they are Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, or of another faith, suffer equally when they are made to disappear, killed, or locked away for their beliefs.”

Albright also referred to the unfinished human rights and democratic agenda.