On the 60th anniversary celebration of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, Microsoft, through the voice of Pamela Passman, corporate vice president of Global Corporate Affairs, reiterated its commitment to the guiding principles behind the cause of human rights. According to Passman, the Redmond company has adhered to the UDHR throughout its history spanning back no less than 33 year, and across its business practices, from employment policies to members of its supply-chain, but also in terms of procurement practices.

“Our status as both a technology leader and a large global employer has given us a platform from which, when necessary, we’ve been able to get the attention of the global media and policy-makers. We’ve raised our voice primarily in four key areas related to human rights: fair employment practices, supply-chain management, freedom of expression, and community development,” Passman stated.

Still, at the same time, Microsoft has found itself in the uncomfortable position of having to go against human rights policies, in order to ensure that it remains in conformity with local laws. One example comes from China, where, in 2006, the software giant chose to silence the MSN Spaces blog authored by “Michael Anti” (pseudonym). Passman indicated that Microsoft was doing nothing more than to comply with local law at the express request of the People’s Republic of China.

“As in many other aspects of our society, the Internet has probably been the single most powerful catalyst in the human rights arena. It has had a dramatic impact on the speed and degree with which human rights abuses have been identified and publicized. I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to relax our attention to human rights issues around the world, but I am confident that we can mitigate some of the damage by using the latest advances in — and applications of — information and communication technologies, to jump on reports of abuses more quickly and to organize cooperative responses and protests,” Passman concluded.