"Universal values are... more acutely needed, in this age of globalization, than ever before. ...In the Universal Declaration, we proclaimed that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”. ...in the Millennium Declaration, all States reaffirmed certain fundamental values... freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility. They adopted practical, achievable targets–-the Millennium Development Goals –- for relieving the blight of extreme poverty and making such rights as education, basic health care and clean water a reality for all. We have seen what disastrous consequences... particularist value systems can have: ethnic cleansing, genocide, terrorism, and the spread of fear, hatred and discrimination. ...this is a time to reassert our universal values. ...we must not allow ...a “clash of civilisations”, in which millions of flesh-and-blood human beings fall victim to a battle between two abstractions –- “Islam” and “the West” –- as if Islamic and Western values were incompatible. ...the validity of universal values does not depend on their being universally obeyed or applied. Ethical codes are always the expression of an ideal and an aspiration, a standard by which moral failings can be judged rather than a prescription for ensuring that they never occur. ...We need to be able to say that certain actions and beliefs... should be rejected by all humanity. ...The function of universal values is not to eliminate all... differences, but rather to help us manage them with mutual respect, and without resorting to mutual destruction. ...traditions survive best, not when they are rigid and immutable, but when they are living and open to new ideas, from within and from without. ...We need to do everything we can to improve the United Nations... to make it more useful to the world’s peoples... and more exemplary in applying the universal values that all its members claim to accept. ...we need to be more effective ...especially in what we do to promote and protect human rights. ...Do we still have universal values? Yes... They need to be carefully thought through. They need to be defended. They need to be strengthened. And we need to find within ourselves the will to live by the values we proclaim –- in our private lives, in our local and national societies, and in the world."