In celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, no theme is more important than the rights of the human person, according to the Secretary-General. In an address to the Human Rights Forum today, he said human rights were the founding purpose and ultimate goal of the Organization. The history of human rights law and practice was also the history of the United Nations itself.

The General Assembly had consistently worked to broaden and deepen its action for human rights, he continued. Beyond that, the Organization had pushed forward the frontiers of human rights to encompass new fields: genocide, slavery, torture, and the elimination of discrimination based on race, sex or religious convictions.

"We can and must go further," the Secretary-General concluded. Democracy - both within and among States - is ultimately the sole true guarantor of human rights. Much of what we can do can be termed diplomacy for democracy. And development must now centre on the rights of the human person."