Chargé d'Affaires Duane Butcher’s Remarks on the Occasion of Human Rights Essay Contest Awards Ceremony "What’s My Role in Protecting Human Rights?"

Good morning! Let me congratulate each and every one of you on your participation in this contest. Our goal was to encourage young adults like yourselves to think about human rights and what you can do to protect and sustain them, what they mean to you, and why they are important in a free and democratic society.
I am delighted to open this wonderful event and to welcome you here for the awards ceremony of the essay contest. The judges who read your essays were impressed by your enthusiasm, eloquence, and creativity. I also think that your grasp of English grammar and composition would put many U.S. high school students to shame! We received 417 essays, from 36 Bucharest high schools and colleges, and while each one was unique, there were a number of common threads that connected them:
All of you agreed that human rights were and will continue to be a key concept in our modern society. A world of democracy is a world of respect for human rights. To protect human rights is to ensure that people receive some degree of decent, humane treatment. The responsibility to protect human rights resides first and foremost with governments and countries themselves. But each and every one of us has a stake in ensuring that every person is treated in a decent and respectful way. Accepting that we are all different, but all humans, contributes to peace and harmony, and truly understanding this demonstrates wisdom.
Your ideas reflect those of many great thinkers and wise men and women who, during their lives, struggled for the protection and respect of human rights. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people said: “Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free."
The U.S. Government is proud of its partnerships in Romania that support English teaching and the further development of democratic institutions through programs such as: English Language fellows and specialists, nine American Corners and four American shelves throughout Romania, the Access English Language Micro-scholarship program for high school students, and high school civics education programs among others. These kinds of people-to-people partnerships form the basis of our long term friendship and underline our joint commitment to supporting democracy both at home and abroad. Of course, there is always room for improvement. No country, including the United States, is able to perfectly uphold the ideas in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The Declaration is both a starting point and an ultimate destination, on a journey that Romania, the United States, and nations around the globe, take together.
It will be the task of your generation to continue to advocate the values of the Declaration, those basic freedoms that all people have the right to enjoy and the duty to cherish. I am confident that you are up to the challenge.