Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 93.djvu/1589

 PROCLAMATION 4705-DEC. 6, 1979

93 STAT. 1557

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JIMMY CARTER, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of December, 1979, as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourth. JIMMY CARTER

Proclamation 4705 of December 6, 1979 Bill of Rights D a y Human Rights D a y and W e e k, 1979

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution of the United States. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General As- USC prec. title 1. sembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In marking these anniversaries, we renew our dedication both to our own liberties and to the promotion of human rights everywhere on earth. In our open society, a freely elected government, an independent judiciary, a free and vigorous press, and the vigilance of our citizens combine to protect our rights and liberties—civil, political, economic and social. We can be proud of what we have achieved so far. Yet we cannot rest satisfied until the Bill of Rights is a living reality for every person in the United States. The Equal Rights Amendment would help do that by explicitly guaranteeing the basic rights of American women. I urge every state that has not yet done so to ratify this wise and necessary measure in the coming year. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets global standards that reflect the same vision that inspired our own Bill of Rights. Almost every country has endorsed the Declaration. Yet in too much of the world its promise is mocked. Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, summary executions and torture, disappearances and acts of genocide still shatter the lives of millions. Fundamental human liberties are continually threatened by the silencing of political dissenters, by discrimination based on race, religion, ethnic origin and sex, by violations of the freedoms of assembly, association, expression and movement, and by the suppression of trade unions. And as the kidnapping and abuse of American Embassy employees in Iran have reminded us, the internationaly protected rights of diplomatic envoys are a basic condition of civilized relations among nations. Those who cause others anguish—whether they are the secret police of dictators, the faceless bureaucrats of totalitarian states or the chanting mobs of revolutionary zealots—must know that we will not defend them, but their victims.

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