Universal Human Rights Fifty Years after Franklin Roosevelt's `Four Freedoms' Speech, and 200 Years after the Bill of Rights, Their Principles Are Influencing the World

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LAST month marked the 50th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famed "Four Freedoms" address to Congress. And the year 1991 commemorates the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights appended to the United States Constitution. Each of these two documents, separated by 150 years, has had a profound influence in the international arena.

Speaking on Jan. 6, 1941, President Roosevelt identified the traditional freedoms of speech and expression as the first freedom, of religion as the second. He then extended the list to include two modern concerns - freedom from want and freedom from fear. On each of these ideals, FDR emphasized the refrain - "everywhere in …