Opening Statement of Chairman Bill Delahunt
At a Hearing of the Subcommittee on
International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight
"A Review of the State Department's
2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices"
May 2, 2007
This hearing of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight will come to order. Our focus is on the State Department's annual country human rights reports. And it features Barry Lowenkron, the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, as our witness. Welcome, Mr. Secretary.
In his second inaugural address, President Bush spoke these words:
"We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right.We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors."
These are inspiring words. But as we have heard over the course of a number of hearings on foreign opinion of the US over the past few months, the world doubts the sincerity of our commitment to those ideals. America's image has suffered grievously - and, I might add, put our national interests at risk - not because they hate our freedoms and democracy, but rather because the world sees us as betraying our values and ideals. The world expects us to practice what we preach.
At a hearing last month, one of your predecessors, Mr. Secretary, Harold Koh, laid this out very clearly, and I'm quoting:
"Unnecessary, self-inflicted wounds - such as our counterproductive policies on Guantanamo, torture, denial of habeas corpus - have gravely diminished our standing as the world's human rights leader. Our government's shortsighted actions have undermined America's longstanding commitment to human rights principle as a major source of our "soft power."
Secretary Rice implicitly acknowledged this reality when she said, upon introducing these reports, "We do not issue these reports because we think ourselves perfect, but rather because we know ourselves to be deeply imperfect." And I applaud you, Mr. Secretary, for the observation in your written testimony that, "We recognize that we are issuing this report at a time when our own record has been questioned."
But let me suggest that it is not just our counterterrorism policies in that have undermined our claim to world leadership in terms of human rights. In his inaugural address that I quoted earlier, President Bush spoke of how the "untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world." But, as the State Department reports clearly lay out, some of the darkest corners of the world are governed by some of our allies in the so-called "war on terror" or those with whom we have important economic relationships.
The Administration is right to criticize governments of countries like Iran or Cuba or North Korea for violations of human rights and lack of democracy. But that criticism rings hollow when the President welcomes Hu Jintao of China or Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan or Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to the White House. Or when Vice President Cheney visits Kazakhstan's dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev and expresses, in his words, "admiration for all that's been accomplished here in Kazakhstan." Or Secretary Rice herself refers to Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea as a "good friend." Outside of these reports that we are reviewing here today, there is silence as to these leaders' abysmal human rights record.
I'm not naïve. I understand that absolute consistency in foreign relations is impossible. And that sometimes the choice is not between good and evil. But between more evil and less evil.
But I also know that America's power ultimately does not come from our military or economic strength. It emanates from our core values: our commitment to human rights and democracy. And from how we fulfill that commitment, in our actions, not just our rhetoric.
The unfortunate fact is that the policies have not lived up to those inspiring words of President Bush. This inconsistency between words and deeds makes us vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy erodes our claim to moral leadership and to the sincerity of our commitment to human rights and dignity, which is what has always been so appealing to the rest of the world about the United States. And, as the Government Accountability Office has concluded, this growing negative opinion of the US can have real and dangerous consequences for the safety and interests of the American people.
The bottom line is that if we always place base rights over human rights, and mineral rights over democratic rights, and cooperation in chasing al Qaeda over cooperation in ending torture, we will pay a dear price in terms of our national interests.
So what I would like to explore in this hearing, and in future hearings, is how do we regain that moral leadership? How do we renew our commitment to human rights and democracy and make it a cornerstone of our approach to the world, not just one of several competing influences and factors? What policies and attitudes do we need to change? What actions should we take?
Some may be obvious, such as shutting down Guantanamo and observing the Geneva Conventions. But others are not. And that is where, Mr. Secretary, I hope that you can help us. We have to get this one right. Because the worst thing for America is that our moral leadership continues to erode and we become seen as "just another country."
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