Proclamation 5752 --
Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human Rights Week, 1987
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
The
Constitution whose Bicentennial we celebrate this year begins, ``We the People,'' and thus tells Americans and all the world
that we hold the individual as sovereign, not the government or any other
political entity. The Bill of Rights, added to the Constitution in 1791,
specifies individual liberties and adds that powers ``not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.''
The
Founders of our country believed the rights of the individual are God-given,
not originating from or granted by the state. Their timeless vision of
individual liberties for all people is why we pause each December to express
thanks for our heritage and to renew our commitment to the vital cause of human
rights around the globe. We also celebrate the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which set human rights standards for all nations.
Tragically,
governments in many lands deny this vision. Some make elaborate claims that
citizens under their rule enjoy human rights and even offer illusory guarantees
of those rights -- but then reveal their absence through lack of due process,
free elections, or freedom of religion, expression, and assembly. Their
constitutions often declare openly that citizens' rights are subordinate to the
interests of the state. Even if words look good on paper, the absence of
structural safeguards against abuse of power means that freedoms may be taken
away as easily as they are allowed. In countries where monopoly power rests
with a single group or political entity, the scope for human liberty is narrow
indeed.
These
states pose the greatest threat to liberty, not only because under them people
are denied the exercise of the most fundamental freedoms, but because they pose
external as well as internal dangers. Unlimited power, exercised in the name of
universalist ideologies,
often tries to extend its control beyond borders, denying other peoples their
human rights and self-determination.
Standing
against these dangers are those people the world over who, undaunted by
tremendous odds and great personal risk, continue to press for individual
rights and freedoms. Their courageous struggle for human dignity is a triumph
in itself, but the
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by
virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim December 10, 1987, as Human Rights Day and December
15, 1987, as Bill of Rights Day, and I call upon all Americans to observe the
week beginning December 10, 1987, as Human Rights Week.
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 10th day of December, in the
year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register,