PERSPECTIVE ON THE NEWS December 10, 1979 Issue

The higher view of human rights

Stiff prison sentences handed down recently to human rights activists in Czechoslovakia and to a leading dissident in China are stark reminders that accepted standards of human rights still are being flouted.

Yet the outcry touched off repressive measures is in itself a sign of a growing awareness of the dignity of the individual and of his fundamental rights.

Pressure of world opinion has aided in rectifying injustuces in some cases. And churchmen imprisoned as dissidents in some countries have told how prayer has sustained them in their ordeals and helped them gain their freedom.

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