Somebody's Birthday

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 802, 3 December 1954, Page 27

Somebody's Birthday

F you met him in the street, you'd probably have forgotten him by the time. you'd walked two paces past... He is just Mr. Somebody — a middle-aged chap, medium height, works hard all the week at the office. Goes for walks on Sunday with his wife and youngsters. Never raises his voice. Average type of fellow. It is easy to overlook Mr. Somebody, but whether he livés in London, Laos or Levin, Mr. Somebody has his charter of freedom, It is the Universal Declaration

of the Rights of Man which was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948. Mr. Somebody knows that simply to declare Human Rights does not necessarily mean those rights will be at once a reality. But it does make the neglect of those rights more and more difficult, When, for instance, the United Nations declared that everyone has the right to work, it did not pretend to open workshops or to oblige countries to spend money on unemployment benefits. What it did Was to underline the fact that no civilisation can be truly progressive which does not allow all its people to share in the nations’ work or which does not assure them a _ legitimate share of the produce of labour. So Mr. Somebody, on his birthday, December 10, thinks of these things. All he can do is to look after his family, hope, and put his trust in the goodwill of men met together to try to win a peace more elusive than a dancing moonbeami. Mr. Somebody, a UNESCO feature commemorating the 6th anniversary of Human Rights Day, will be heard from all YA and YZ stations at 9.15 p.m. on Friday, December 10