Human rights are the business of everyone.
According to the Universal Declaration we are all linked to each other because we all have the same human nature, the same longings, the same hopes and fears, and we are all responsible for the basic protection of each other's human rights, to speak up and take action when our neighbours' rights are violated no matter what his or her race or country, language or religion. If this 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights is to have any significance, any meaning, then it should spur us on to greater efforts in implementing and respecting the Universal Declaration which Canada and others have ratified. As we approach the new millennium, one of the major concerns in maintaining world order, in maintaining world peace and justice, is how we, Canada and the international community, deal with issues of human rights. Some say that the developed world has exported war to the developing world as part of a pattern of economic and cultural domination. They point to the worldwide distribution of military bases and the arms exports to the developing countries which during the last 20 years were estimated at 220 billion.