December 9, 2005
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY DECLARATION
The German World Alliance strongly supports the efforts of the United Nations and of civil society to promote and protect human rights throughout the world.
GWA firmly believes that equality is the over-arching principle of human rights. God created all men and women of all races and all religions equal in their human dignity. The GWA believes that if governments and private individuals would simply respect each other and treat others as themselves, there would be no wars, no war crimes, no genocide, no terrorism.
Equality also entails the equality in dignity and in rights of all victims of violations. Accordingly, there cannot be politically correct victims and those whom we can safely ignore.
GWA calls upon the United Nations and civil society to vindicate this principle of equality.
There cannot be recognition of one category of victims while other victims are forgotten. And yet there are millions of “unsung victims”, whose rights are systematically ignored, even by non-governmental organizations that are ostensibly committed to the defense of human rights.
The survivors of the mass-expulsion of the Central- and East-European Germans at the end of the Second World War and their descendants, the German survivors of ethnic-based deportation and slave labor in the Soviet Union, the German-American survivors of discriminatory internment during and after the Second World War and their descendants, the survivors of the Armenian genocide and their descendants, the Greek-Cypriot survivors of the invasion of Northern Cyprus by Turkey in 1974 and their descendants, all denied to this day the right to return to their homelands– all these forgotten human beings are entitled to recognition of their status as victims.
If there is restitution for other victims of human rights violations, there must also be restitution schemes for these victims, because discrimination in the field of human rights is untenable.
The GWA salutes the 57th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on 9 December 1948 and of the adoption, one day later, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. GWA is committed to work for the realization of peace and the enforcement of human rights throughout the globe.
The GWA pays tribute to all unsung victims of violations of human rights and pledges its efforts towards a more just resolution of their grievances.
Alfred de Zayas
www.alfreddezayas.com