UN General Assembly
1957

168. Our views as to what should be included in the Covenants are in accordance with the spirit of the Charter. As the presidents of the American Republics stated in the Declaration of Panama on 22 July 1956, "The State is the servant of man and not his master." These noble words recall the great and eternal truths of Western civilization, that human beings possess inalienable and imprescriptible rights, preceding and transcending those of the State, the latter’s purpose being merely to preserve them and harmonize them in their respective spheres of action. Thus the aim of law, both national and international, is to ensure the freedom and the happiness of man. These views are radically at variance with other ideologies, which are, we believe, inconsistent with the Charter, since they hold that the citizen receives his freedoms from the State and that he cannot assert his rights at the international level except through the State.