and to guarantee human dignity and social and political stability in the long term. Minority rights help to build peaceful societies that respect and celebrate their diversity. And protection of minorityrrights is not only a moral imperative, for they are quite simply essential to achieving sustainable human development, democratic governance and peace in the long-term. Each of us looks at the world through a different lens, defined by our beliefs and opinions, our personalities, backgrounds and experiences. And it is plain that different societies and communities — with different cultural frameworks, traditions and sets of challenges — have developed unique strengths and weaknesses in serving their members. But every State, when it commits to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, agrees that the values that it contains are