Keynote Address to the U.S.-ASEAN Symposium on the ASEAN Human
Rights Declaration Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Sixty-four years ago, against
the backdrop of the horrible atrocities committed during World
War II, a group of dedicated individuals stood together to lay
out a framework for the acknowledgement and protection of human
rights around the world. Through this group’s earnest
commitment, the world acknowledged for all time that certain
rights are manifest, held by all individuals throughout the
world, irrespective of who they are or where they live. The work
they produced became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted on December 10, 1948. Present at the creation, Burma,
the Philippines, and Thailand supported the document in the
General Assembly. The UDHR became the baseline expression of
rights to which all persons are entitled – the standard against
which all other efforts to define human rights have been, and
will continue to be, judged. Many re