The Universal Declaration is the banner of today's increasingly effective struggles to end human rights abuses.

Freedom from fear and freedom from want are still, of course, far from reality in many millions of people's lives. Pervasive discrimination, torture, and political killing; government failures to advance the rights to adequate education, social security, health care, food, and housing; international silence when there should be outcry to protect refugees, children caught in the cross-fire of war, and individuals whose only "crime" is their peaceful defense of human rights: the prevalence of these violations is staggering.

The perpetrators today often deny that the violations are occurring. Sometimes they attack the credibility of their accusers, or they claim that their practices are matters of "internal affairs." Yet they do not seriously challenge the individual human rights principles of the Universal Declaration.

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, said in 1997, "Human rights are African rights. They are also Asian rights; they are European rights; they are American rights. They belong to no government. They are limited to no continent, for they are fundamental to humankind itself."

World attitudes are changing. It was not all that long ago that slavery, torture, and mass death from starvation were considered to be understandable, if regrettable, facts of life. Today public opinion no longer tolerates such official positions.

The personal freedoms presented in the Universal Declaration are continually reaffirmed at national and international levels, with increasing breadth, detail, and attention to practical means of enforcing human rights protections. International law once protected only the rights of states. Now international law protects the rights of individual men, women, boys, and girls. In short, what nations do to their own people is no longer solely their own affair.

The number of courts and other judicial bodies with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals responsible for human rights crimes also is growing. For their atrocities in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, perpetrators recently have been brought before international war crimes tribunals.

Nongovernmental human rights organizations, with agendas based on the Universal Declaration, were few and far between until the last couple of decades. Now thousands of groups, inspired by the Declaration and by successes in securing national policies which uphold its principles, represent grassroots constituencies at local, national, or international levels. These groups are collecting facts about human rights abuses, assisting individuals with human rights grievances, developing highly effective strategies to prevent further abuses, and mobilizing large constituencies to secure change.

For those who care about justice, it is now clear that there can be no justice without respect for basic human rights. For those who care about peace, it is now clear that patterns of gross human rights violations are a primary cause of war. For those who care about sustainable economic development, it is now clear that promoting the human potential of women and men and engaging citizens' groups in policy-making are not only foundations of human rights, but also foundations of sound economic and social policies.