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Fifty years ago, world leaders mourning the Holocaust made a commitment to freedom and peace by adopting the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, securing the liberties of people worldwide has progressed, but much work remains.The Carter Center translates the Declaration's words into actions by helping strengthen international systems to enforce human rights standards and by encouraging emerging democracies to promote respect for and protect those rights.

Advancing human rights is the foundation for our work at The Carter Center," former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said. "Our efforts aim to prevent abuses, not just correct them after they occur. Vast amounts of suffering and money can be spared if we address problems early and attempt to weave respect for human rights into the fabric of societies."

Building International Cooperation

The Carter Center's International Human Rights Council brings together nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and representatives of agencies from around the world to combine their influence in addressing key human rights issues. This collaboration has generated greater political and financial support for the U.N. human rights system by:

• Successfully advocating the establishment of the U.N. high commissioner
  for human rights post in 1994.
• Advancing NGO access to the U.N. deliberative process.
• Promoting the establishment of an independent, effective International
  Criminal Court (ICC).
• Pushing for greater resources for U.N. human rights investigators, special rapporteurs, and working groups.

Still, many challenges await. The U.N. budget for human rights is grossly inadequate, and in particular, human rights investigators suffer from insufficient resources. These highly qualified, dedicated people usually are volunteers, working with little or no administrative or professional support. Yet their efforts are pivotal in determining the extent of abuses and attempts to stop them.

"Increasingly, governments suspected of abuses are blocking, harassing, or ignoring these investigators as they try to do their jobs," said Karin Ryan, vice chair of The Carter Center's Human Rights Committee. "Greater funding and political support for their work is imperative to enforce the tenets of the Universal Declaration and to protect basic liberties."

Also critical to deterring human rights abuses is establishing a permanent ICC to try individuals believed to have committed war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity. In the past year, the Center advanced the nearly 40-year-old ICC debate by hosting two conferences on the role of the United States. Participants discussed various options, including whether the court will be independent from the U.N. Security Council and how the prosecutor will initiate investigations. The ICC is the topic of a major U.N. conference in Rome this summer.

"Genocide and other horrible crimes took place in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina, but few of the perpetrators have been tried and punished. It took years to organize ad hoc tribunals in those regions," said Harry Barnes, director of the Center's Conflict Resolution Program and chair of the Human Rights Committee. "With a permanent court of international criminal justice, perpetrators could be brought to trial more quickly, and future crimes might be deterred."

Crafting National Frameworks

National institutions and laws that protect human rights are essential to securing democracy. The Carter Center strives to help new and struggling democracies educate citizens and to incorporate human rights precepts into social institutions such as the educational system, the judiciary, and law enforcement.

"Countries in transition from war to peace or from military to civilian rule can face daunting challenges to reconstruct basic social services as well as the ideas on which society is organized," Mr. Barnes said. "We try to find ways to help governments that are willing to build institutions to protect human rights in the long run."

In Ethiopia, the Center worked with the Ministry of Education to teach children about human rights through mandatory curricula such as civics classes and soon will help Ethiopian judges and lawyers implement human rights principles in courtrooms. As Guyana consolidates participatory democracy, community workshops are improving the relationship between police and citizens. And in Liberia, Center staff sponsored seminars on press freedom and responsibility and on human rights education and monitoring. They also are helping the new Liberian Commission on Human Rights refine its mandate and are working with Liberia's law school and judiciary to strengthen the rule of law."These initiatives are important because they are preventive," Mr. Barnes said. "Policies give us a guideline for progress, but the path to permanent peace is paved by individual and collective actions, step by step."

Strengthening Human Rights Work

At The Carter Center, the next step in human rights promotion and protection is to incorporate them into all of its programs and projects.

"Human rights do not exist in a vacuum," said Carter Center Associate Executive Director Gordon Streeb. "Human rights principles must be incor-porated into economic development strategies, health care and nutrition policies, labor practices, and other social sector activities that put ideas into practice."

For this reason, human rights staff now collaborate with program teams on Center projects to advance democracy, prevent and resolve conflicts, promote health and well-being, and enhance global development.

"The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights offers individuals and institutions an opportunity to renew their commitment to its principles," Mr. Barnes said. "We've made a lot of progress but not enough to be complacent."