Opening Speech Hugo de Jonge Four Freedoms Awards Ceremonie 2026

This was not a sweet vision of a distant millennium. 

It was a courageous call to action to break American isolationism during the Second World War.

Roosevelt understood that the world order of dictators based on military power had to be opposed by a moral order based on human rights.

And so the four freedoms became the moral justification for the involvement of the United States in the liberation of Europe from the tyranny of Nazism.

Until this very day we are deeply grateful that so many young Americans answered this call to action and sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

 

The strive for the four freedoms did not end after the war.

Thanks to the tireless work of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the four freedoms became the ideological inspiration behind the Charter of the United Nations, the Declaration of Human Rights and the international rules-based order. 

 

For decades, we prospered while pursuing these freedoms.

Cooperation between free countries, working together in a friendly manner, provided wealth, stability and security.

Of course we knew there were gaps between the rhetoric of the four freedoms and reality. 

And of course we knew that the hopes that were aroused in many hearts by the creation of the United Nations out-ran the limitations of human nature. 

But we believed in the righteousness of freedom for everyone, everywhere in the world.

And so we committed ourselves to the realization of these freedoms.

 

This commitment is no longer self-evident.

Every day we see how the four freedoms are being weakened by authoritarian forces in our world. 

How they no longer respect the rights of the vulnerable. 

How they no longer try to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. 

How they no longer reaffirm faith in the dignity and worth of every human person.

It seems we are just at the beginning of that harsh reality.

 

Yet trying as these times might be, they also allow us to see where we have gone astray.

For too long, we have thought that the four freedoms were the obvious and only path that world history was on.

We believed that the four freedoms satisfied everyone’s desires.

That it was just a matter of time before this moral order would bring down all tyranny’s in this world.

And we had good reasons to believe that. 

We were used to things getting consistently better over our lifetime. 

Every year, there was more democracy in the world.

Less poverty.

More peace.

But our convictions were never really tested.

And so we forgot that the course of history does not bend towards the four freedoms, unless we stand up for them and are willing to defend them. 

 

The rupture in our world order shakes us out of this complacency.

It is a wake-up call. 

The question is: are we courageous enough to respond to this call?

 

Today, we honour the laureates who show us what courageously responding to this call looks like.

The courage to show the people around you that Jews and Muslims can live in harmony, and work for a society where antisemitism and Muslim hate don’t have a place.

The courage to defend the right of journalists to report the news safely, and speak truth to power when this right is violated. 

The courage to call out the persecution of religious minorities by your government and, despite immense personal risks, tell the world about the God you worship.

The courage to challenge existing norms around people with disabilities and through activism fight for their rights and dignity.

The courage to shift the blame from victims to perpetrators during a public trial and become a beacon of hope that frees women’s voices.

The courage to stand up for your country, and say to Russia: “We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this.”

 

We pay the highest tribute to the unwavering courage and enduring perseverance of the Ukrainian people, and to the steadfast and resolute leadership of their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

You continue to stand firm in defence of your freedom and sovereignty.

Be assured: your struggle is not yours alone. 

It is a struggle we recognise as our own.

It is a struggle that is also about our freedom. 

We will remain deeply and enduringly committed.

 

Laureates, thank you for your examples of courage. 

May we find ourselves worthy of them by passing on that courage to others.

 

Roosevelt inspired millions to rally for freedom and human rights.

And we can do the same.

You don’t have to fly to the ends of the earth to stand up for what is right.

Human rights begin in small places, close to home. 

And you don’t have to hold a position of high status to be concerned about your brother and sister. 

It is about ordinary people doing good to each other in the ordinary cause of things.

However old or young you are, however poor or rich, however powerful or powerless, you have a responsibility to seek to make of this world a better place for everybody.

So be involved in the struggle for freedom and human rights.

 

Like the laureates, we might have to suffer in this struggle.

But let our hearts be consoled by the promise that we shall reap what we sow.

And let our hands be guided by the command to overcome evil with good.