President Joe Biden, in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, laid out his vision for what the future of the world should look like. One of the President’s highest priorities is promoting respect for universal human rights.
“The future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample it,” said President Biden:
“The future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand. Authoritarianism — the authoritarianism of the world may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they’re wrong.”
Democratic activism is alive and well in many parts of the world, declared President Biden:
“It lives in the anti-corruption activists, the human rights defenders, the journalists, the peace protestors on the frontlines of this struggle in Belarus, Burma, Syria, and Cuba, Venezuela and everywhere in between.”
Elsewhere in Sudan the human desire to live free is demonstrated in the brave women and men who withstood violence and oppression to push a genocidal dictator from power and continue to push for democracy today.
In Moldova, citizens helped deliver a landslide victory for the forces of democracy, with a mandate to fight graft, to build a more inclusive economy.
And millions of first-time voters, young people, and women in Zambia expressed their desire for freedom by voting in a historic turnout to combat corruption and chart a new path for their country.
“And while no democracy is perfect,” said President Biden, “democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential:”
“This is a moment where we must prove ourselves the equals of those who have come before us, who with vision and values and determined faith in our collective future built our United Nations, broke the cycle of war and destruction, and laid the foundations for more than seven decades of relative peace and growing global prosperity.”
“But none of this is inevitable,” declared President Biden, “it’s a choice. And I can tell you where America stands: We will choose to build a better future.”
