International Year of Human Rights - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1968 - 5 Pfennig

International Year of Human Rights For the International Year of Human Rights, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues three special stamps. International Year of Human Rights The year 1968 was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Human Rights, with the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December. On this occasion, three special stamps, a First Day Cover and a special cancellation are published in the German Democratic Republic. These stamps symbolize the realization of human rights in the GDR and at the same time correspond to the meaning of this year. As can be seen from the preamble of this Declaration, it was proclaimed as the ideal to be attained by all peoples and nations, according to the historical experience of the anti-Hitler coalition. Although not a norm that is binding under international law, it has proved to be a document of high political and moral force, influencing the process of law-making in many countries of the world. Meanwhile, on 21 December 1966, the 21st UN General Assembly adopted the conventions on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights. Compared to the General Declaration of 1948, both documents represent significant progress in the international legal standardization of human rights, in particular by including the right of peoples to self-determination as the basis for all other human rights. It also obliges states to legislatively ban all war propaganda, chauvinist and racist activities that incite discrimination, hostility and violence. Both conventions come into force as soon as at least 35 states have joined them. This is one of the stated goals in the International Year of Human Rights. The German Democratic Republic can rightly point out that it fully complies with the standards of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the two Conventions. The constitution adopted by referendum of our socialist state and its peace policy are convincing proofs for this. The people of the GDR freed themselves from the economic, political and ideological shackles of imperialism in the exercise of their right to self-determination; it realizes popular sovereignty, which is the basic principle of our socialist state and social order. Under these conditions, it was possible that fundamental human rights such as the right to work, the right to education and the right to participate in the deliberate shaping of the political-state, economic and cultural life of an all-round personal development cleared the way and materially as well legally guaranteed. It is an outrageous discrimination that the GDR and other states that represent a quarter of humanity are denied access to the UN human rights conventions at the instigation of imperialist forces in the United Nations. The efforts that are still needed and should be further strengthened in the International Year of Human Rights are shown by the US aggression in Vietnam, racial terror in the US, South Africa and Rhodesia, Israeli annexation policy, and the rampage of the fascist military junta in Greece the alarming renazification in West Germany. The GDR stands side by side with the oppressed peoples in fraternal solidarity, while the West German government supports the US genocide in Vietnam and has its hand in it, where human rights and human dignity are trampled underfoot. The policy of the West German rulers, who are declared vicarious agents of the US Global Strategy, is not only an affront to the principles and principles of the United Nations under international law, but also reaffirms the necessity and timeliness of the "International Year of Human Rights" on German soil.