SOS Bushmen

Rights champions and diplomats gathered in Paris Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN human rights declaration, arguing its ideals remain as relevant as ever six decades on from its adoption.

Born out of the trauma of World War II, the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights shaped modern concepts of human dignity and served as a template for international rights conventions that followed.

Ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephane Hessel was to read out its preamble before a gathering of European and United Nations officials, artists and rights groups at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT), in a solemn ceremony at the Palais de Chaillot near the Eiffel Towel, where it was adopted on December 10, 1948.

"Still today, it is a text worth reading. It is perfectly relevant. All the more so because it has not been upheld -- and it is asking us to fight for it," Hessel, who helped draft the declaration, told AFP.

"We live in a world that tramples on human rights all the time."

Based on France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, the 30-point non-binding text was adopted by 58 UN states, with the atrocities of World War II fresh in their minds.

Article 1 of the text proclaims: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

Hessel said that the election of Barack Obama as US president was an indicator of the progress on the equality front.

"Pessimists say things are getting worse and worse, that the world is a terrible place but there has never been so much progress in 60 years," he said.

"We created a united Europe, we got rid of apartheid, we ended the Soviet Union and its gulags, we set up the International Criminal Tribunal to try rogue heads of state.

"Just look at Obama, a black man at the head of the United States."

Amnesty International, which was marking the anniversary with a rally in Paris, is looking to Obama to put human rights back at the top of Washington's agenda, urging him to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in his first 100 days in power.

"I hope very much that the US really take a strong stand on human rights in the future," Amnesty's head Irene Khan said in a recent interview with AFP to mark the 60th anniversary.

"And there is every reason for the US to do so. As the world's largest power, everyone looks at the US as a role model."

Rights advocates list the sufferings of Palestinians, the atrocities in Sudan's Darfur, humanitarian disaster in Democratic Republic of Congo or the US rights record in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, as continuing affronts to human rights.

"What the 9/11 attacks did was expose the hypocrisy of Western democracies that until then had been champions of human rights abroad," Khan said.

The UN declaration did not prevent a new genocide from occurring, in Rwanda in 1994, and basic rights continue to be violated on a daily basis around the globe.

To coincide with the anniversary, the campaign group Survival International issued a plea for the rights of indigenous peoples around the world, from the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode indians of Paraguay to the Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana.

And the ACAT anti-torture group called for a stepped-up efforts to eradicate torture, still thought to be used in half of all countries around the world, as well as outlaw the death penalty.

The address by Hessel, who helped draft the declaration, kicks off an evening of music, speeches and film projections chaired by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

As part of the celebrations, five foreign NGOs working to uphold the rights of women and children in Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Lebanon, Morocco and Somalia were to receive a special human rights prize.

Human Rights Declaration Reaches 60 – But Only 20 Countries Have Signed Tribal Peoples’ Law

The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated tomorrow, 10 December – but only 20 countries have signed up to the international law on tribal peoples, whose rights are routinely violated.

The very existence of many tribal peoples is under increasing threat. In Paraguay, the last uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode are running for their lives as bulldozers rapidly raze their forest.

In India, the Jarawa tribe came into fatal conflict last month with poachers invading their land, leaving one Jarawa and one poacher dead.

In Botswana, the Kalahari Bushmen are being destroyed by a government which denies them access to water but is forging ahead with plans to mine diamonds on their land.

International Labour Organisation Convention 169 (ILO 169) is the strongest international legal instrument safeguarding tribal peoples’ rights. It recognises their rights to own their land and to make decisions about projects that affect them, and it is legally binding on governments that sign it.

Survival is campaigning for all governments to ratify ILO 169, strengthening it and giving tribal peoples the best chance of a future.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Sixty years after the world acknowledged the sanctity of human rights, entire tribes are facing extinction. There is no excuse for this. Every government must take responsibility and ratify the law to help ensure their survival.’