Staff writer

KOBE -- Human rights mean freedom from tyranny, and, while today's Japan has broken the bonds of political tyranny, it still has a ways to go in breaking the bonds of social tyranny, said the keynote speaker at a United Nations University symposium that began here Tuesday.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Human Rights Declaration, the U.N.U. Global Seminar '98 Kobe Session chose human rights and the future of human-rights development as its theme. The first day of the four-day seminar drew about 90 participants, including students from universities around Japan and local citizens.