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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1998)
UM. i u ^ By Josh Funk Senior staff writer The document that ushered in an era of human rights turned SO years old today. | The Universal Declaration of Human Rights listed 30 basic human rights that all people are entitled to. The declaration has made human rights one of the four biggest topics in foreign policy today along with securi ty, economics and environment “It set the standard that every human being is entitled to,” said Lisa Sock, a senior political science major and Amnesty International member. “It is up to us what to do with those stan dards.” More than 60 events worldwide are planned to commemorate the declara tion’s golden anniversary this month. Celebrations will be coupled with conferences and town-hall meetings as rights activists try to raise the aware ness of human rights. The declaration was written in 1948, three years after the United Nations was founded. All but eight nations voted for it; those eight aosiameo. In the U.N. charter, member nations were required to protect human rights, but they wore not listed until die decla ration. - Before 1945, human rights were a national issue. Each country deter mined its own policies, and there was no international influence, David Forsythe, a UNL political science pro fessor, said. But the atrocities ofWorld War II changed that. “They had the notion that human rights was not a moral issue, it was a security issue,” Forsythe said. And the declaration goes further than the U.S. Bill of Rights. Though the U.S. BUI of Rights lists blocking rights - things the government can’t do to citizens - the declaration also lists positive rights - the basic things government must provide. “This is a broader approach to rights including socioeconomic rights never written into the U.S. Constitution,” Forsythe said. There have been 65 human rights treaties signed since the declaration was adopted, and human rights has become an important foreign policy issue. "Every ume you turn around, human rights are a part of it,” Forsythe said U.S. policy is permeated with human rights concerns. U.S.-China relations are largely based on human rights issues, and several recent interna tional military operations in Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia have been based mainly on human rights violations. “It is important to realize that we enjoy a lot of these rights,” Sock said, “but a lot of people around the world only enjoy five or six of than “Asa human race we need to work to establish these rights universally.” This fall, the UNL Amnesty International group collected4,800 sig natures in support of the declaration. Those signatures were compiled with others, and a book of 10 million signatures will be presented to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan at an event in Paris today. Though human rights issues have become an important internationally, it is crucial to keep working to implement them, Forsythe said. “We’ve come a long way in theory this century, but we’re not always good in practice.” Student plays way to Sony championship ■ computer science major Faisal Ahmed will compete in the PlayStatio Midwest regional finals. By Josh Funk Senior staff writer At the Orange Bowl on Jan. UNL could be competing for its thi national football championship in row - the cyber version, that is. At the Midwest regional comp© tion today in northern Californi junior computer science major Fais Ahmed will be battling on a Soi PlayStation for a berth in the nation championship tournament. Every year EA Sports sponsors collegiate tournament following tl release of the latest version of the looioan viueo game. And the University of Nebraska Lincoln has had national champions each of the last two years. So, it is up to Ahmed to carry on the tradition as he tries for the three — peat. Ahmed earned the right to com pete in regionals by besting the com petition at a tournament at Gateway — Mall in September. 1, One of UNUs past champions, rd Jeff Luhr, used his experience in the a gaming tournament to land a full time job with Electronic Arts, i- This fall, Luhr helped organize 13 a, of the 32 regional collegiate touma al ments across the nation, and he said ty Ahmed is his pick to win it all. al “I’ve seen a lot of the players this year, and none of them come close to a Faisal,” Luhr said. ie Ahmed said he has been playing a ir lot of different people lately to pre pare ror me compeimon, ana ne s ready. Ahmed said he plays video games whenever he gets a chance. “It’s one of the few things I am good at,” Ahmed said. He said the intense interest in col lege football in Lincoln has helped prepare him. He hopes Lincoln’s tough training ground will help him roll over the competition. One winner from each region will go on to Miami to compete in the national competition, which will be at a tailgate party before the Orange Bowl. All four competitors will get tickets to the game. Ahmed said his roommate has been a big help as he prepared. “He used to give me more of a run for my money, but now he is just sort of a sparring partner I can try new tactics on.” Exon: Mass destruction weapons still pose threat By Brian Carlson Staff writer Although the Cold War is over, the international challenges posed by weapons of mass destruction remain, former U.S. Sen. James Exon told UNL students Wednesday. In fact, today’s problems may be more difficult to address because they don’t fit the model of Cold War nuclear deterrence policies, Exon said in a University of Nebraska Lincoln political science class on nuclear weapons and arms control. “Frankly, I’m most concerned, more than nuclear weapons, about chemical and biological weapons,” he said. “I’m not as much concerned about another nation, even a rogue nation, attacking the United States with a nuclear device as I am with ter rorists in those countries.” Exon, a Democratic senator from Nebraska from 1979 to 1997 and longtime member of the Senate /vriueu services ^omminee curreni ly serves on a committee appointed by President Clinton to address the threat of chemical and biological weapons. “The idea is not to alarm American citizens unnecessarily,” he said. “By and large, though, Americans are more or less unin formed about the threat posed by chemical and biological weapons.” He said the nerve gas attack in a Japanese subway a couple of years ago served notice of the threat posed by these weapons. He also cited Richard Preston’s novel “The Cobra Event,” which he said illustrated the consequences if such weapons were to fall into the wrong hands. “You don’t have to have a war head or a rocket device to spread chemical, biological or nuclear mate rial in the men’s restroom at Yankee Stadium,” he said. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union relied on the threat of massive retaliation to deter a nuc lear first strike by the other side. Faced with the threat of nuclear 1 destruction, leaders refrained from using nuclear weapons. t Exon said, however, that nuclear deterrence may not address scenarios likely to lead to nuclear exchanges today. He helped Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey draft a speech on Russian nuclear weapons that Kerrey present ed to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York last month. Kerrey recommended that the United States cut its stockpile of nuclear warheads by more than half. The United States should increase funding to help Russia dis mantle its nuclear weapons, as well, he said. Kerrey also endorsed a limit ed missile defense system to protect against accidental launches or nuclear strikes by rogue states. Exon said he to tolly agreed with Kerrey’s proposal for slashing war head stockpiles and said the United States should help Russian disarm. The current level of U.S. funding for dismantling Russian nuclear weapons, about $10 million, is “peanuts,” Exon said, considering disarmament is in the best interests of the United States and the world. Exon parted ways with Kerrey, however, on the issue of a missile defense system. An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, even a limited one, would violate the 1972 ABM Treaty and needlessly provoke other countries, he said. Nick Medlock, a junior political science major and member of the class, said he agreed with Exon and Kerrey’s recommendations for reduc ing U.S. and Russian warheads and for removing U.S. missiles from their hair-trigger alert status. He said he supported an ABM of the type Kerrey proposed, as long as the technology was shared with Russia and the ABM Treaty was revised. “If we’re going to implement an ABM, we should offer to share the technology with the Russians and not create a situation where the Russians would perceive a threat from the ABM,” he said. I
