UNITED NATIONS
Press Release
9 December 2004

The vision and promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are
under considerable strain, the top United Nations human rights official
said Thursday, calling the response to the threat of terrorism "confused".

Speaking in Geneva on the eve of International Human Rights Day, Louise
Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that today, "Few of us
are free from fear; many of us are still not free from want. The sinister
shadow of terrorism is generating a confused response, unanchored in the
principles that have guided us in the search for a proper balance between
our desire for collective security and our need for liberty and individual
freedom".

"The vision and the promise contained in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights are under considerable strain", she said.

Mrs. Arbour underlined that the United Nations High-Level Panel on
Threats, Challenges and Change had captured well the global threats the
world faces. "International terrorist groups prey on weak States for
sanctuary", she said. "Their recruitment is aided by grievances nurtured
by poverty, foreign occupation and the absence of human rights and
democracy; by religious and other intolerance; and by civil violence - a
witch's brew common to those areas where civil war and regional conflict
intersect".

The High Commissioner cautioned against becoming "prisoners of a culture
of fear and an ideology of exclusion and arrogance". "More than ever", she
said, "the international human rights agenda creates a forum, may be the
only universal forum, in which conflicting views, aspirations and beliefs
of a most fundamental nature can confront each other in a respectful
environment".

She continued: "We must preserve the space that we have created, through
our international human rights instruments and institutions, for this
interaction to take place. And we must embrace the future boldly as we
seek to improve these instruments and institutions."

Much depends on the readiness of the international community to act on its
responsibilities, Mrs. Arbour said. She urged all Member States to ensure
that the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration on 10 December
1948 are properly promoted and protected.