1981 General Assembly President von Wechmar Receives Human Rights Award – Jan 09 - Historical Repository for Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

1981 General Assembly President von Wechmar Receives Human Rights Award – Jan 09

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President of the Thirty-fifth Session of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Rudiger von Wechmar, was presented with the second annual Human Rights Award of the meditation group on 9 January 1981 in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium .

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Accepting, as he said, “on behalf of the 154 States that are Members of the United Nations and sit in the Plenary,” President von Wechmar noted the long road that lies before the realisation of the Declaration of Human Rights.

Also speaking at the programme were Ambassador Zenon Rossides of the Permanent Mission of Cyprus, and Mr. Alejandro Bendaiia Rodriguez of the Permanent Mission of Nicaragua. Other countries representatives were also present for the event.

A song dedicated to the President of the General Assembly by Sri Chinmoy was performed by the meditation group singers in four languages. Excerpts from the ceremony follow.

Mr. Alejandro Bendaiia Rodriguez, Permanent Mission. of Nicaragua to the United Nations.’

Shraddha

I am privileged, on behalf of the Government of Nicaragua and on behalf of Ambassador Tinoco, who is now in Nicaragua, to be able to share with you some thoughts and considerations about human rights in Nicaragua.

We are thankful because this programme gives us an opportunity to speak about human rights, which was one of the fundamental principles behind the Nicaraguan revolution, now entering into its seventeenth month.

This revolution was the antithesis of what was represented by a dictatorship that indulged in criminal acts against humanity, totally in contradiction to what Nicaragua, as a State, had endorsed in 1948.

The purpose of the revolution was to bring about a full respect for the rights of an individual being, and, in that context, provisions were quickly made to bring into practise the protection of human rights in Nicaragua.

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This began even before the triumph of the revolution itself, in the programme of the 2 Government which abolished the death penalty, and within eight weeks of the revolution , a fundamental statute on the protection of human rights had been enacted.

The Covenant on International Political and Social Rights, with its optional protocol here at the U.N., was signed; the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Inter-American Convention for the Protection of Human Rights were also enacted. A National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights was established. But the protection of human rights involves more than words, laws or conventions. It is a living practis .

Nicaragua is the first to say that the situation regarding the protection of human rights can be improved in our country, as it can be improved in any country. Our Government will strive toward that improvement, and we hope that the international community as a whole and associations, such as your own, will see to it that those universal values are enforced and that when they are not, people will speak out. Thank you.

Ambassador Zenon Rossides, Permanent Mission of Cyprus to the United Nations:

Shraddha

I am happy to be here on this occasion when an award is to be given to the President of the General Assembly. I believe it is important to emphasize his concern for human rights and all the efforts he has made toward promoting human rights in the General Assembly. This includes his efforts for a new economic order, which also are a sign of how much concern he has for these matters. We have come here today and we have had a moment of silence and a song on human rights.

What is in a song? In a song is the means of communication with the universal spirit. Music has a rhythm , and that rhythm is the same as the rhythm of the universe. The rhythm of music that is in Beethoven, Bach or any classical music is the same rhythm that is in the music of a wild man. It is the rhythm of the universe. Now, we at the United Nations have our Charter with its preamble and its main body. Its preamble contains a great deal of spiritual things, while its main body deals with more practical aspects .

But we have reached a time when the intellect of man is not able to deal with the problems that are facing him. There is need of an adjustment to new conditions that have been created by the sudden breakthrough of science and technology. We have reached the time of nuclear weapons and space travel , but we are still the same generation that lived before these developments. The human mind and the human body have over millions of years adjusted themselves to new situations, but not when they have arrived so suddenly. The worst of it is that these new situations threaten the very survival of the species of man on this globe.

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We in the United Nations are trying hard to cope with this adjustment, but we find it very difficult. That is why I attach great importance to what Sri Chinmoy and his group are doing here to promote the spirit of man as a means of saving humanity. What we are trying to do by the intellect alone in the United Nations proves so little. In fact , we have not even been able to comply with the Charter, which outlines the main purpose for the establishment of the United Nations. We have not been able to create what is needed for international security, as opposed to leaving international security to weapons and the arms race – which will be the end of humanity.

I cannot see a way of stopping the arms race with the intellect of man, when that intellect refuses to comply with the Charter in the requirements of cooperation and peace . So, we are at loggerheads with the Charter, we are at loggerheads with everything, unless the spirit comes to show us that we are all brothers on this earth, to show us that there is one great enemy : the nuclear weapon and the advance of technology, if misused. Let us bring good uses to the advances of science and technology , and for that what we need is the spirit of man.

I think if we get this spirit into the minds of men who guide nations, in the United Nations and everywhere, then we will have made a great step forward. I want to wish you all the best for the new year and let us hope that this year will prove better than previous years. Thank you.

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Sri Chinmoy presenting the Human Rights Award to President von Wechmar:

We the members of the meditation group are extremely happy and grateful to you for your kind acceptance of this humble Human Rights Award. We are offering this humble gift to you, but it is actually you who are honouring us by accepting this humble token of our deepest appreciation and admiration. Once more, from the very depth of my heart, I am offering my most soulful gratitude.

H.E. Mr. Rudiger von Wechmar, Preszident of the Thirty Fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly:

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Sri Chinmoy, and I think I shouldn’t say Excellencies, but rather let me say friends, thank you very, very much for this great honour, which I accept not as the person who stands here , but as someone who for twelve months, from September 1980 to September 1981 , holds an office.

I think what is honoured is the Office of the President of the General Assembly, and so with your permission, I not only gratefully and I hope gracefully accept this award, but I also accept it on behalf of the 154 States that are Members of the United Nations and sit in the Plenary.

We are assembled today to look at the present state of affairs as far as human rights are concerned, and it might be an occasion to recall that in Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it was proclaimed in December 1948,that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Now, even though this was written many, many years ago, I am afraid that we have to admit that this Article One has not always and not everywhere found either acceptance or support by individuals, groups of individuals or governments. That is why I believe that the United Nations may still have far to go on the road to fulfilling the mandate of the Declaration.

We have made important advances. Various United Nations bodies, as you all know, deal almost on a regular basis and in depth with human rights issues. Yet, situations indicating systematic and gross violations of human rights still exist and are still a matter of great international concern.

I will cite just o

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ne figure that shows how much concern there is. At present, the United Nations Division of Human Rights in Geneva receives more than 40,000 individual complaints about human rights violations every year. I’m sure these are not the only people who have something to complain about, but these are the ones who address themselves to the Human Rights Division -40,000 human beings who have complaints about human rights violations. Some of these complaints, incidentally, are not just from individuals but from groups or individuals representing groups.

Now, despite the advances made so far towards a world in which human rights will be accepted as a birthright, human beings are still being tortured, executed without trial, imprisoned for exercising their rights of conscience, and discriminated against on account of their colour, sex or race in many parts of the world. To this day, apartheid remains the official policy of a Member State of the United Nations. Armed conflicts are being waged, 8 thereby uprooting hundreds of thousands of people .

Foreign military occupation still flouts the right to self-determination of people, and we have millions of refugees in the world, which is also a sad case of not granting human rights as embodied in the Universal Declaration. To this day, millions of people live below the subsistence level, their enjoyment of human rights often drastically curtailed by an unjust economic order which forces them to struggle for their very survival. I am very grateful for the remarks that Ambassador Rossides made a little earlier about our efforts to create a new, more humane and more equal economic order.

To preserve the dignity that the Human Rights Declaration speaks of, I believe the basic foundation must first be laid for all people to attain freedom, justice and equality, not only in their political or social activities, but also in their economic activities – their participation in the economic life of our globe . So, I think you will all agree when I say that the United Nations must continue its endeavours along this path and must continue however long that path may be.

Thank you very much.

A HEART OF ONENESS TREE

Shraddha

President of the General Assembly!
You arc your fruitful heart of oneness tree.
Each nation has a special hunger-need.
You long to feed their needs, and succeed.
O courage-flood. O nobility sea,
O champion·dreamer of One-Nation·Family!