今天,我們并不試圖將自己的見解強(qiáng)加于人,但我們深信,某些權(quán)利具有普遍性,它們不是美國的權(quán)利或者歐洲的權(quán)利或者是發(fā)達(dá)國家的權(quán)利,而是每個人與生俱來的權(quán)利。這些權(quán)利現(xiàn)在載于《聯(lián)合國人權(quán)宣言》。這些就是待人以尊嚴(yán)、各抒己見、選舉領(lǐng)袖、自由結(jié)社、自由選擇信教或不信教的權(quán)利。
In the last letter of his life, the author of our Declaration of Independence and our third President, Thomas Jefferson, said then that "all eyes are opening to the rights of man." I believe that in this time, at long last, 172 years after Jefferson wrote those words, all eyes are opening to the rights of men and women everywhere.
《獨立宣言》的作者、我國第三任總統(tǒng)托馬斯·杰克遜在他一生的最后一封信中寫道:“人們正在睜開眼睛關(guān)注人權(quán)。”在杰克遜寫了這句話172年之后,我相信,人們現(xiàn)在終于睜開眼睛關(guān)注著世界各地男女老少應(yīng)享受的人權(quán)。
Over the past two decades, a rising tide of freedom has lifted the lives of millions around the world, sweeping away failed dictatorial systems in the Former Soviet Union, throughout Central Europe; ending a vicious cycle of military coups and civil wars in Latin America; giving more people in Africa the chance to make the most of their hard-won independence. And from the Philippines to South Korea, from Thailand to Mongolia, freedom has reached Asia's shores, powering a surge of growth and productivity.
過去20年以來,一個高漲的自由浪潮解放了成千上百萬的生靈,掃除了前蘇聯(lián)和中歐那種失敗的獨裁統(tǒng)治,結(jié)束了拉美國家軍事政變和內(nèi)戰(zhàn)的惡性循環(huán),使更多的非洲人民有機(jī)會享受來之不易的獨立。從菲律賓到南朝鮮,從泰國到蒙古,自由之浪已沖到亞洲的海岸,給發(fā)展和生產(chǎn)力注入了動力。