Four Freedoms Award 2009
"The Four Freedoms have inspired millions of people all over the world. They have been a source of comfort for human rights defenders in all corners of the globe. The world’s future depends on our upholding the values that were so dear to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The power of their four freedoms will prove stronger than any force that seeks to destroy them."
Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, distinguished Laureates, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great privilege to address you at tonight’s award ceremony.
In the 1640s, Claes Martenszoon van Rosenvelt sailed from the Netherlands to present day Manhattan. He was the first member of the Roosevelt family to arrive in what was then New Amsterdam, and like so many Dutch immigrants, he took up farming. Who could have imagined that centuries later his farm would become the site of the Empire State Building? And who would have guessed that two of his great-great grandchildren, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would become the 26th and the 32nd Presidents of the United States?
Honoring the Dutch origins of its patrons, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute founded the Roosevelt Study Centre in Middelburg, in the Dutch Province of Zeeland. Here, the Four Freedoms Award and Medals are presented to a select group of Laureates every other year.
But not this year! This year, we are gathered in New York. And we are here in a week that finds the city painted orange, the Dutch national color, as the United States and the Netherlands commemorate their shared history of four hundred years. A history that began with the arrival of the first Dutch ship, the Halve Maen, in 1609, followed soon after by Dutch settlers like Van Rosenvelt.
This jubilee year inspired the Roosevelt Study Centre to publish a survey of our shared history. It’s an impressive book, entitled Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations, and it covers every aspect of our relationship. I can highly recommend it – but I should warn you in advance that it’s twelve-hundred pages long! So it truly does justice to our rich shared past.
A shared past that has been shaped by shared values. From the earliest days, our two countries have been united by a mutual desire for freedom, by the importance we attach to democracy and human rights, by our shared passion for entrepreneurship and trade, initiative and responsibility, and by respect for hard work and privacy. We believe that everyone is entitled to freedom of speech and expression, and to freedom of religion and belief. These values influenced the New Netherland colony at the time, as they influenced the young Dutch Republic. These values explain why our peoples have always felt at ease with each other, and why our two countries have always worked so well together. And this is not just a thing of the past! The values that our peoples have shared for centuries are still at the heart of American and Dutch society, and they still guide our friendship today.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Four Freedoms that President Roosevelt first articulated have inspired millions of people all over the world. They have been a source of comfort for human rights defenders in all corners of the globe. And they have served as a constant reminder for world leaders of their obligation to safeguard our most fundamental rights. The Dutch government is deeply committed to promoting and protecting human rights. We have placed human rights squarely at the centre of our foreign policy.
Madam Secretary,
The universality of human rights is being challenged on many fronts in today’s world. Our response should be to stand together in support of these human rights. Our countries, and you and I personally, have worked together well to this end. Later this month, we will meet again at the United Nations to muster international support to end violence against girls, just one of the many causes you have consistently championed in your long career. In you, Madam Secretary, the world has found a true defender of justice and human rights. Many congratulations on being honored here tonight with the Four Freedoms Award. I look forward to continuing our close cooperation. Let me assure you of the Netherlands’ continued support and friendship.
Mr Patel, Ms Escarra, Mr Romero, Mr Amuro,
Let me congratulate you, too, on your Four Freedoms Medals. In your work, each of you has paid homage to President Roosevelt’s legacy, and you have shown the moral courage that is so often lacking in this world.
Adlai Stevenson once referred to Eleanor Roosevelt, that great human rights champion and ambassador of the people, by saying, ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’. You have all lit candles, and you have made the world a brighter place.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Tonight’s festivities may seem in sharp contrast to this morning’s commemoration at Ground Zero, where we honored the victims of the terrorist attacks that shocked the world eight years ago today. But they are not. The world’s future depends on our upholding the values that were so dear to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The power of their four freedoms will prove stronger than any force that seeks to destroy them.
Thank you.