Campobello Conference on Peace and Human Rights Message Accepting the Conference's Human Rights Award Medal.

I am deeply honored to accept this fine medal and regret that I cannot greet each of you in person who are participating in the Second Annual Armand Hammer Conference on "Peace and Human Rights—Human Rights and Peace." There is no cause with which I am prouder to be identified than that of fostering human rights for all people. I accept this honor not as a personal tribute, hut as an affirmation of our effort to support the brave and decent people everywhere who struggle for human dignity, often against daunting odds.

It is especially fitting that your meeting this year is on a beautiful island, forever associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Their lives and works embodied a selfless quest for peace and human rights, not only for their fellow Americans, but for all humankind.

Last December, the month of the first Armand Hammer Conference in Oslo, we celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the work of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights chaired by that great humanitarian, Eleanor Roosevelt. On that occasion I described the Universal Declaration as a beacon—a guide to a future of personal security, political freedom and social justice. The Universal Declaration remains, as Mrs. Roosevelt said, "a common standard of achievement of all peoples of all nations."

Organizations such as the International Institute of Human Rights have helped to ensure that this beacon has remained an undimmed source of hope and inspiration of our fellow humans suffering deprivation and repression. No group of individuals has contributed more to the achievement of these standards over the years than the men and women participating in this Campobello Conference. Nobel Prize winners, distinguished statesmen and women, parliamentarians, scholars, international civil servants—all have been tireless participants in the struggle to achieve the great dream of universal human rights.

But human rights cannot flourish in a world at war or threatened by war, and so peace remains a crucial goal for all who seek human rights for all people. Last June in Vienna President Brezhnev and I signed the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. This is a key instrument for strengthening the prospects for peace and for increasing the vitally important understanding between the nuclear superpowers. Doctor Hammer and others have worked arduously for many years to foster that understanding.

You have my warmest good wishes for a successful conference. I know your deliberations will do much to advance both human rights and international peace, and I salute you for your devotion to these noble causes.

JIMMY CARTER