January 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous State of the Union Address, delivered by the US President in 1941 at a time of deep turmoil and conflict in the world. It also marks the beginning of a year in which we hope to ‘build back better’ after the torment of Covid-19. What principles should guide our response? Could they be based on the idea of freedom that motivated Roosevelt?
In his remarkable speech, Roosevelt spelled out his vision for a better world, premised on the notion of ‘four freedoms’:
"The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world."
This part of Roosevelt’s speech became one of the foundations of the modern articulation of human rights and greatly influenced the text of the Atlantic Charter, the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
