Content area
Full Text
Mr. Nooke, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated on 10 December. Article 2 states: "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind." How much progress has the international community made in implementing this aspiration since 1948?
We have succeeded in further concretizing a large number of rights named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, above all as a result of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which date from 1966. On the other hand, we must ask ourselves the question: "How far has the situation of individual human beings actually improved as a result?" Here, unfortunately, the result is far more mixed. Or to put it another way: there is no lack of standards, just of their implementation. I am also concerned about increasing attempts to undermine the universal validity of human rights, for example, under the pretence of cultural distinctions. Article 2, which you just mentioned, obliges us to emphatically oppose such attempts.
Does German history oblige us to be especially active on human rights issues? If so, how does this special obligation express itself?
I'm very much convinced of that. Our Basic Law also commits us to this. We enjoy great credibility on the question of human rights. We benefit from the fact that we do not have a colonial past like other European countries. Germany experienced two dictatorships and has extensively attempted to come to terms with that. That has involved painful, but valuable experiences. Many people abroad say to me that Germany is the ideal country to champion human rights.
What issues are occupying the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy most in the second half of 2008?
My attention will be focusing on three subjects in coming months. First, there is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which we will be celebrating, among other things, with a large event at the Federal Foreign Office on 14 October. I am pleased that there will be many events celebrating this occasion all over Germany, some of which I will also be able to attend in person....