Good progress has been made since the Venice Economic Summit called for increased effort on this front.  We and other donor countries have begun to assist poor countries develop long-term strategies to improve their food production.  The World Bank will invest up to $4 billion in the next few years in improving the grain storage and food-handling capacity of countries prone to food shortages.

Good progress has been made since the Tokyo Economic Summit called for increased effort on this front.  The World Bank is giving this problem top priority, as are some other donor countries.  The resources of the consultative Group on International Agricultural Research will be doubled over a five-year period.  The work of our own Institute of Scientific and Technological Cooperation will further strengthen the search for relevant new agricultural technologies.

The goal of freeing the world from hunger by the year 2000 should command the full support of all countries.

The Human Dimension of Foreign Policy

HUMAN RIGHTS

The human rights policy of the United States has been an integral part of our overall foreign policy for the past several years.  This policy serves the national interest of the United States in several important ways:  by encouraging respect by governments for the basic rights of human beings, it promotes peaceful, constructive change, reduces the likelihood of internal pressures for violent change and for the exploitation of these by our adversaries, and thus directly serves our long-term interest in peace and stability; by matching espousal of fundamental American principles of freedom with specific foreign policy actions, we stand out in vivid contrast to our ideological adversaries; by our efforts to expand freedom elsewhere, we render our own freedom, and our own nation, more secure.  Countries that respect human rights make stronger allies and better friends.

Rather than attempt to dictate what system of government or institutions other countries should have, the U.S. supports, throughout the world, the internationally recognized human rights which all members of the United Nations have pledged themselves to respect.  There is more than one model that can satisfy the continuing human reach for freedom and justice: 

1980 has been a year of some disappointments, but has also seen some positive developments in the ongoing struggle for fulfillment of human rights throughout the world.  In the year we have seen: 

—­Free elections were held and democratic governments installed in Peru, Dominica, and Jamaica.  Honduras held a free election for installation of a constituent assembly.  An interim government was subsequently named pointing toward national presidential elections in 1981.  Brazil continues on its course of political liberalization.

—­The “Charter of Conduct” signed in Riobamba, Ecuador, by Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama and Spain, affirms the importance of democracy and human rights for the Andean countries.