Toespraak bij de Four Freedoms Award (En)
Gelegenheid: Uitreiking van de Four Freedoms Award, MiddelburgYour Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
When President Roosevelt described the Four Freedoms in January, 1941, he sought a world where disarmament was the priority of governments, and prevention of war was the responsibility of every person – everywhere in the world.
On this, the 29th day of May, 2010, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to international governance to assure peace and social justice, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom from Fear Medal is awarded to:
Gareth Evans
who has won for both Australia and himself the respect and gratitude of the family of nations for his commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and to the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Having graduated with a first-class honors degree in Law from the University of Melbourne, and receiving an advanced degree from Oxford, you returned to Melbourne to teach and practice law, but you also had a strong interest in politics, and in 1977 won a seat in the Australian Senate as a member of the Labor party.
You remained in Parliament for the next 21 years – as a Senator, a member of the House of Representatives, and as a cabinet minister serving as Attorney General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communication and, finally, as one of the longest serving Foreign Ministers in your country’s history.
In those crucial years – 1988 to 1996 – your service as Foreign Minister won international acclaim for leadership in the development of the United Nations Peace Plan for Cambodia, a nation forever scarred by its Killing Fields.
The Chemical Weapons Convention is also a significant international agreement that bears the hallmark of your considerable work.
In 1999, you left Parliament but your career as a statesman had just begun. You were appointed Co-Chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.
Inspired by the tragedies of Cambodia, Rwanda and Srebrenica, the Commission grappled with the complex question of when the international community has a right to intervene in the affairs of a sovereign nation to prevent genocide and other atrocities. In a world dominated by nation-states, this question has perplexed statesmen for generations.
Thanks to your guiding hand and leadership, the Commission came up with a simple yet novel solution – The Responsibility to Protect. Rather than focus on the question of whether a given state has the right to intervene, you argued for the principle that it is the responsibility of all states to protect their own people. Therefore, the primary responsibility to prevent genocide rests with every state, and failure to do so would trigger action by the international community – the obligation to intervene.
The Responsibility to Protect was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005. It establishes the principle that state sovereignty implies responsibility to protect, and that failure to meet that responsibility will have international consequences. This achievement is a landmark in human history. The Netherlands has always strongly supported the concept of the Responsibility to Protect, working with you and others to turn it into a reality for the world’s citizens.
Your public service continued as President of the International Crisis Group in Brussels, working to prevent and resolve deadly conflict between nations. And today, you are deeply involved in the world’s most critical challenge – nuclear non-proliferation – which is being confronted in both the United Nations and in negotiations with North Korea and Iran in the months ahead. Your leadership is acknowledged by your appointment as Co-Chair of the International Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission. The Netherlands, too, supports a world free of nuclear weapons, and we will do our utmost to work towards this noble objective, and this includes assisting you in your important task.
In January of this year, you were appointed chancellor of the Australian National University. Your life, your extraordinary service to the ideals of democracy and the United Nations have won the admiration and appreciation of all those who share Franklin D. Roosevelt’s commitment to the Four Freedoms. In his name we make this award and honor you this day.
Thank you.