World Freedom Day, 2016

Vol. 81

Monday,

No. 219

November 14, 2016

Part V

The President

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Proclamation 9538--World Freedom Day, 2016

Proclamation 9539--Veterans Day, 2016

Notice of November 9, 2016--Continuation of the National Emergency With
Respect to Burundi

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 9538 of November 8, 2016

World Freedom Day, 2016

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The Berlin Wall stood in the city it divided for nearly
30 years, separating families and loved ones and
embodying the authoritarianism that reigned in
Communist states throughout the Cold War. On November
9, 1989, with the courage of their convictions and a
longing to forge their own destinies, Germans from both
the East and West sides of the Wall celebrated history
as a defining symbol of the Iron Curtain collapsed.
Twenty-seven years later, we pay tribute to the
unyielding determination of those who chose unity over
division, and we rededicate ourselves to carrying this
spirit forward wherever core tenets of democracy and
liberty are at stake.

When President John F. Kennedy declared in West Berlin
that ``when one man is enslaved, all are not free,'' he
captured the irrevocable truth of the work that remains
to this day. Our world is more prosperous and free than
at any time in our history, with more people than ever
before choosing their leaders through free elections
and living in democracies with greater respect for
human rights. But such liberty will not emerge across
the globe in a single wave--building strong, democratic
institutions and maintaining robust civil societies is
the work of generations, and it is up to each of us to
put our shoulders to the wheel of progress and fight
for the future we seek. Whether in quiet struggle or
boisterous protest, the Berliners who endured the
division the Berlin Wall created and stood for remind
us of the necessity to never abandon the values that
have brought us as far as we are today.

For centuries, people of every nation have borne
witness to great strife and tension in our ever-
changing world--but we have proven we can always choose
a better course through our relentless pursuit of
freedom. Across oceans and continents, in recognition
of World Freedom Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to
carrying forward the enduring celebration of liberty
that defined the fall of the Berlin Wall.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim November 9, 2016, as
World Freedom Day. I call upon the people of the United
States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies
and activities, reaffirming our dedication to freedom
and democracy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord two
thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and forty-first.