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LV INTERIOR White House, President Carter speaking (5 shots)
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CARTER: "Our human rights policy is not a decoration. It is not something we have adopted to polish up our image abroad, or to put a fresh coat of moral paint on discredited policies of the past. Of all human rights, the most basic is to be free of arbitrary violence. Whether that violence comes from government, from terrorists, from criminals, or from self-appointed messiahs operating under the cover of politics or religion. But governments, because of their power, which is so much greater than that of an individual, have a special responsibility. The first duty of a government is to protect its own citizens. And when government itself becomes the perpetrator of arbitrary violence against its citizens, it undermines its own legitimacy."




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Background: The United States' President Carter, in an address at the White House marking Human Rights Day, reaffirmed America's commitment to human rights saying it was the soul of his administration's foreign policy. He said his country's foreign aid programme would inevitably favour those countries supporting "a democratic path of development".