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Clinton calls for safeguarding of "fundamental freedoms"

Other News Materials 30 June 2011 15:33 (UTC +04:00)
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Thursday for the protection of democratic values and warned against the "slicing away of fundamental freedoms" during a speech in Hungary's parliament building.
Clinton calls for safeguarding of "fundamental freedoms"

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Thursday for the protection of democratic values and warned against the "slicing away of fundamental freedoms" during a speech in Hungary's parliament building, DPA reported.

Without naming any countries explicitly, Clinton said states must not be allowed to "backslide" and warned against putting economic growth before human rights.

"Democracy is struggling to be born around the world today," Clinton said at the inauguration of the Tom Lantos Institute in Budapest, a pro-democracy think tank named in honour of the Hungarian-American US congressman.

Lantos, a Democratic Party member who died in 2008, was a Holocaust survivor and an outspoken advocate of human rights and democratic freedoms.

"It is vital that we do not engage in the kind of political tactics that erode democracy," Clinton said.

Clinton was due to travel to Lithuanian capital Vilnius in the evening, where she was slated to address a Community of Democracies meeting.

"We will... show solidarity with those in the streets of Belarus and Libya," Clinton said, in reference to pro-democracy protest movements in both countries.

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