The White House
President George W. Bush
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 25, 2007

Fact Sheet: A Mission of Liberation Around the World
President Bush Calls On Members Of The United Nations General Assembly To Work Toward Standards Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

      President Bush Addresses The United Nations General Assembly

Today, President Bush addressed the United Nations General Assembly and called on every UN member to join a mission of liberation from tyranny, hunger, disease, illiteracy, and poverty. Achieving the promise of the UN's commitment to "freedom, justice, and peace" laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires both confronting long-term threats and answering the immediate needs of today. The UN must work to free people from tyranny and violence, hunger and disease, illiteracy and ignorance, and poverty and despair.

Liberation From Tyranny And Violence

Terrorists and extremists who kill the innocent are a threat to civilized people everywhere. All civilized nations must work together to stop them by sharing intelligence about their networks, choking off their finances, and capturing or killing their operatives.

Every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand up for people suffering under dictatorship. In Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Syria, and Iran, brutal regimes deny their people the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Americans are also outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear.

Liberation From Hunger And Disease

Today, more than half of the world's food assistance comes from America. The President has also proposed using a portion of U.S. emergency food assistance to purchase the crops of local and regional farmers. This would help build up local agriculture and break the cycle of famine in the developing world, and the President urges the United States Congress to support this approach.

The President calls on UN member states to work together to turn the tide against HIV/AIDS and to eliminate malaria.

Liberation From Illiteracy And Ignorance

The United States is joining with nations around the world to help them provide a better education for their people. In partnership with other nations, America has: helped train more than 600,000 teachers and administrators; distributed tens of millions of textbooks; and helped nations raise standards in their schools.

Last May, the President committed to provide an additional $525 million over the next five years to make our international education programs even more robust.

Liberation From Poverty And Despair

In the long run, the best way to lift people out of poverty is through trade and investment. Open markets ignite growth, encourage investment, increase transparency, strengthen the rule of law, and help countries help themselves.

Through the Millennium Challenge Account, the United States is delivering economic assistance to developing nations in innovative ways. The Millennium Challenge Account increases aid to nations that govern justly, fight corruption, invest in the education and health of their people, and promote economic freedom.

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