From the secretary general.

• Position: Excerpts of speech by UN Sec-Gen Kofi Annan

The United Nations was born out of resistance to fascism and Nazism; out of the lesson that such evils call be combated only through united action by nations. The horror of the holocaust drove home to the drafters of the Charter the paramount importance of human rights in a new framework of peace and security. The United Nations Charter gave universal value to the concept of human rights for the first time. In the Charter, the international community of nations recognized that all members of the human family have equal rights. It pledged that the States signing the Charter would promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion".

And so, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. For nearly two years, under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, the Commission on Human Rights had worked on the draft. In more than 80 meetings at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, the General Assembly had revised, reviewed and voted on changes to the text. The Declaration of Human Rights is not a legally binding document. Yet, it has been a fundamental source of inspiration for national and international efforts to protect and promote human rights and freedoms. The main principles of the Declaration have inspired the constitutions of many countries that have become independent since it was written.

The first article of the Declaration is quite simple. Let me quote it to you. "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

To many of us, that first article is no less true, no less relevant and no less important today than on the day it was written. Yet today, there are also those for whom what are called universal truths are not, in fact, universal. There are those who argue that each society must choose the system that works for it at a given time. Recognizing that human rights are universal, they argue, would be both an intrusion on their sovereignty and a recipe for social and political chaos.

It is true that no single model of human rights, Western or other, represents a blueprint for all States in the transitional world. Human rights are not to be found in dusty legal libraries, but in the hearts and minds of human beings. But let there be no doubt - there are some very basic standards of human behaviour...