Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was introduced in 1948 when the world was reeling from the horrors of the Second World War—when the full extent of the attempted extermination of the Jewish race was unfolding and when the full extent of the horror of Russia under the Stalinist regime was bringing itself to the fore. The declaration states what we have always taken for granted and what the Americans had enshrined in their lead document so many centuries ago: all people are created equal and there is inherent dignity and equality in all human beings.

As I look across the chamber I acknowledge the member for Eden-Monaro. Like me, he has seen many of the horrors of mankind. I saw troops in Rwanda in 1995 in Kubeo during the great massacre, I was with the US Seventh Fleet outside of Cambodia in 1995 and I spent five months in the war-torn province of Bougainville in PNG following the civil war. Every year for the last five years I have gone to Uganda, being the secretary of the international board of Watoto, which seeks to address the horrifying incidence of two million orphaned children in Uganda, the highest rate of orphaned children anywhere in the world. I reflect on the nation of Uganda that reeled from the horrors of Milton Obote through to Idi Amin in the seventies, and then back to Milton Obote, and the violence that that country has been through. I reflect on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and look at some of those two million orphans, of whom we only care for some 2,000. Those orphaned children have inherent dignity and equality, as do all human beings. Everyone should be able to rely on just laws. Everyone should be able to live freely—free from fear of large and imposing governments that know best; free from incarceration without charge, as per article 9; free from torture, as per article 5; and, as article 13 states, everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within each state—free from any borders, any checks or, indeed, any permit system.

As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we cannot be lax and fall into a false sense of security. We cannot use this bill of rights as an excuse to take away the authority and power from elected politicians who are accountable to the people every three years and put the ability to make laws into the hands of an unaccountable judiciary. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. The world has made great strides following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The world has made great strides in checking and addressing some of the abuses of the past and has moved towards a more just and humane world. The price of that justice, the price of that liberty, is eternal vigilance, and vigilant we must remain eternally.

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