Proclamation 3166—United Nation Human Rights Day, 1956

Whereas December 10, 1956, marks the eighth anniversary of the proclamation by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all nations and all peoples, and will be observed by members of the United Nations as Human Rights Day; and

Whereas December 15, 1956, marks the one hundred and sixty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of our Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim December 10, 1956, as United Nations Human Rights Day, and do call upon the citizens of the United States to join with peoples throughout the world in its observance. Let us on this day study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the United Nations and the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States, and thereby renew and further fortify our conviction that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with fundamental and inalienable human rights.

Particularly, on this United Nations Human Rights Day, let us take to heart the lessons the Hungarian people have written in their blood and in their sacrifice and in their indomitable will to be free: That those who have once known freedom and the free exercise of human rights value them above life itself; That decent men and women everywhere are stirred to a deep and enduring sympathy for the heroic oppressed, a sympathy that surmounts all barriers of geography and race.

Let us resolve to give generously of our substance that the hardships and suffering of the Hungarian people may be relieved and let us pray that this season of tragedy for them may end in the return of rights and freedom and self-government.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this 7th day of December in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-first.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

JOHN FOSTER DULLES,

Secretary of State