Statement by the President Upon Signing Order Establishing the President's Commission for the Observance of Human Rights Year 1968.

IT IS seldom that any one man's life embodies both national leadership and a universal cause. It is rarer still when his spirit survives his death and endures as an inspiration for man's deepest hopes.

Such a man was born 86 years ago this day.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stands in life and death as a towering advocate of those timeless ideals that promise individual fulfillment to men and peace to the family of nations. His country pursues those ideals more than two decades after his death: social justice here at home and a community of mutually respecting nations throughout the world.

Today we take another and determined step toward those ideals. We mark the anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt's birth in the most fitting and hopeful way-by building on his work.

I have today signed an Executive order establishing a Presidential Commission for the Observance of Human Rights Year.

The General Assembly of the United Nations has designated 1968 as International Year for Human Rights. It is the 20th Anniversary Year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations members are called up for appropriate national observances throughout this year.

Three months ago, in declaring 1968 Human Rights Year for the United States, I called upon "all Americans and upon all Government agencies--Federal, State and local--to use this occasion to deepen our commitment to the defense of human rights and to strengthen our efforts for their full and effective realization both among our own people and among all the peoples of the United Nations." The Commission I have appointed is composed of distinguished citizens and heads of executive agencies. They are charged with shaping the variety of our efforts into a major and purposeful national contribution.

The United States was founded on great and lasting principles of liberty and rights for the individual. Our Constitution and our laws preserve these rights. Our Government is devoted to enlarging them for all Americans.

But rights not perceived cannot be prized; rights not understood are rights not exercised, and soon weakened or destroyed. We have a great need and responsibility to educate our people in a fuller understanding of their rights.

We can lead by our example. Peace is the spur. If nations are not to rely forever on a fragile balance of fears, they must find confidence in making justice the guiding principle of their national and international affairs.

We seek justice as a safeguard against tyranny and catastrophe. Secretary of State George Marshall reminded us 20 years ago:

"Governments which systematically disregard the rights of their own people are not likely to respect the rights of other nations and other people, and are likely to seek their objectives by coercion and force."

Thus warned in 1948, America pledged her strength and hope with other signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This great compact gave new power and coherence to man's often shapeless, and sometimes hopeless yearning for equality and freedom.

We reaffirm our allegiance to that Declaration today, and call upon all our citizens and institutions to advance its purposes to the extent of their abilities.

The Senate has signified that it will enlarge its own important role. It supported our participation in international agreements that further the protection of human rights by consenting to the Supplementary Convention on Slavery on November 2, 1967. In my proclamation designating Human Rights Year, I declared that ratification of the Human Rights Conventions was long overdue. It is my earnest hope that the Senate will complete the tasks before it by ratifying the remaining Human Rights Conventions.

America's domestic initiatives and successes in assuring our people the guarantees of our Constitution should be better understood by the international community. The Commission I appoint today:

--can enlarge our people's understanding of the principles of human rights, as expressed in the Universal Declaration and the Constitution and in the laws of the United States;

--can provide a focus for governmental participation in Human Rights Year, enlisting the cooperation of organizations and individuals;

--and may conduct studies, issue publications, and undertake such other activities as it finds appropriate.

I have appointed the following distinguished citizens to serve on the Commission: W. Averell Harriman, Ambassador at Large; Anna Roosevelt Halsted of Washington, D.C.; A. Philip Randolph of New York; Tom Clark of Texas, former Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court; George Meany of Maryland, President of the AFL-CIO; Elinor L. Gordon of New York, President of the Citizens' Committee for Children; Robert Meyner, former Governor of New Jersey; Dr. J. Willis Hurst of Atlanta, Ga.; Bruno Bitker of Wisconsin, Chairman of the Human Rights Panel at the White House Conference on International Cooperation in 1965.

I have asked Averell Harriman to serve as Chairman of the Commission. Anna Roosevelt Halsted has graciously agreed to act as Vice Chairman.

I have also today asked the following heads of executive agencies to serve on the Commission: the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I have selected these men and women with care and confidence, because I expect them to perform an outstanding service for every American, and for all who prize the rights that we possess and seek to make secure for others.

The Commission will have my strongest personal support.