An available instrument of subversion.

• Author: Tutu, Desmond, Archbishop
• Position: Universal Declaration of Human Rights as source of inspiration for South Africans

I have, like many other black South Africans, come out of a period of the most awful repression and injustice when we suffered under the pernicious system of apartheid, which has been rightly condemned as a crime against humanity. In all that period of apartheid's ghastly oppression, we were made to suffer for something we could do nothing about - our race. Apartheid claimed that what imbued anyone with worth was actually a biological irrelevance - the colour of one's skin and, since by definition, not all possessed this prized attribute, as it was not a universal phenomenon; there were those, the elite, the select, who would enjoy all sorts of rights and privileges and all others would be consigned to the outer darkness.

During this awful time struggling against apartheid, we were inspired by the noble sentiments contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In many ways, the Declaration became a subversive instrument available to overturn injustice, oppression, racism and unfair discrimination. It told us what our oppressors were at great pains to deny-that we had fundamental, inalienable rights that were not in the gift of some benevolent earthly ruler who could grant or withhold them as the whim moved him. No, the se rights were God-given, the re simply and solely because we were human beings. They were universal-everyone, just everyone whoever the y might be, whether rich or poor, learned or ignorant, beautiful or ugly, black or white, man or woman, by the fact of being a human being had the se rights. As a Christian, I would add that each person was of infinite value because everyone had been created in the image of God. Each one was a God carrier and to treat any such person as if the y were less than this was blasphemous, a spitting in the face of God.

I know we were inspired in our right against apartheid to struggle for a dispensation that would see the Universal Declaration come into its own, when human rights would be cultivated, upheld and revered. And that has come in the new democratic...