18 March 2003
Human Rights Must be Protected by Rule of Law, Kirkpatrick Says
(U.S. delegate addresses Commission on Human Rights) (1720)
Human rights must be protected by the rule of law or they will be
trampled by despots, says Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, head of the
U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights meeting in
Geneva.
Addressing the 53-member body March 18, Kirkpatrick said the
commission "has a solemn obligation" to keep constantly in mind the
suffering and aspirations of the victims of the worst human rights
abuses. She said it "can give encouragement to those who live on the
edge of despair" and who regard it as "their best hope for release
from the wrongs they suffer and redress for their cruel situations."
The United States wants the commission to be a forum where, "despite
the differences in our cultures, political systems and national
experience, we can work together to secure human rights for all,"
Kirkpatrick added.
Following is the text of her remarks, as delivered.
(begin text)
It is an honor to greet the distinguished delegates to the Fifty-Ninth
Session of the Commission on Human Rights; its Chairperson, whose call
for an end to violence against women was most welcome; and the new
High Commissioner for Human Rights whose emphasis on the rule of law
is vitally important, since human rights can only prevail where and
when the rule of law prevails. And of course, we should never forget
that the rule of law consists not only in the articulation of general
rules but also in the habitual compliance of people and the reliable
enforcement by governments of those rules.
The United States government and the American people have had a high
regard for this Commission which was founded to promote and preserve
human rights. Successive U.S. administrations have worked with
dedication to realize its vision and achieve its purposes. Much
remains to be done.
Our delegation, our government, and the American people believe that
the Human Rights Commission should and can make a vital contribution
to the improvement of the daily lives of those who suffer under
oppressive governments. It can assist those working to make the
transition from non-democratic to democratic governments. It can offer
encouragement and help to those seeking to enlarge the freedom and
well-being they already enjoy.
We believe the Commission on Human Rights has a solemn obligation to
keep constantly in mind the suffering and the aspirations of the
victims of the worst human rights abuses. This Commission can give
encouragement to those who live on the edge of despair and who regard
this body -that is, us - as their best hope for release from the
wrongs they suffer and redress for their cruel situations.
The United States seeks to work with other members of the Commission
to assist in providing the support and the services it is uniquely
qualified to contribute. Advisory services provided through the
Commission to governments that seek to improve the rights of their
citizens can help. Special Rapporteurs mandated by the Commission can
help. Our combined knowledge of specific human rights abuses can help
to pierce the veil of secrecy and denial, and shine a ray of light
into the torturers' cell.
We believe this Commission has a solemn duty to speak for those who
are denied the right to speak for themselves. For this and related
reasons, the United States welcomes the initiative of the High
Commissioner in proposing to restructure and decentralize his office
and its operations. We encourage his plans to improve the services of
his office and to create strong national protections for human rights
- without undertaking activities outside his mandate.
The American people have high and exacting expectations about what
this Commission should be and do. We believe the expectations and
hopes of Americans about the Commission on Human Rights are similar to
those of people around the globe. We think all knowledgeable people
want the Commission to be a positive force in establishing high
standards for respecting human rights everywhere - and for progress in
realizing those established in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. We think all people want the Commission to utilize those
standards as they examine the performance of governments.
Why do we want this? For the United States it is a matter of
self-interest and also of national interest. Why should it be a matter
of national policy to assert that all human beings are born free and
equal in inherent rights and human dignity? Why should we care that
everyone has a right to life, liberty and security of person that is
respected by his government, that no one should be subjected to
arbitrary or brutal intrusions into his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to mendacious attacks on his honor or reputation?
Why do we believe that everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
speech, conscience, religion, including the right to change his
religion or teach it to others?
We believe in these principles because they are the principles on
which the United States of America was founded, and by which we have
lived and thrived. We believe they are right for individuals and right
for states.
Like the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we
believe that, and I quote,: "Whereas disregard and contempt for human
rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the
conscience of mankind....Whereas it is essential, if man is not to
have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and
oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of
law...."
In fact, it is clear that human rights must be protected by the rule
of law or they will be trampled by despots. Once it was believed that
respect for the rule of law could exist only in homogenous societies,
but we know now that it can thrive in diversity.
The Brazilian delegate described yesterday the broad ethnic, racial,
and social diversity of his huge country. The United States is also
diverse, almost beyond imagination. Virtually every country in the
Americas is a new nation, a new mixture of persons of diverse origins
who have created and are still creating new political communities.
In the effort to forge unity out of diversity, the United States'
founding fathers wrote in our Declaration of Independence a creed
which resonates today as in 1776. They wrote:
"We hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable
rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
"To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."
Our Declaration states a dream and a doctrine of government by
consent. An important part of the history of the United States has
been devoted to making a reality of this dream for all Americans. As
the world has shrunk, we have sought to share the dream beyond our
borders.
For the United States, the enjoyment and protection of the rights
stipulated in our Declaration of Independence and institutionalized in
our Constitution lie at the heart of our identity as a nation. The
struggle to ensure that those rights are respected by each and every
one of our citizens -- a struggle that is still in progress -- has
been the engine of our history and our development as a nation.
Some of your nations have long and rich histories, many much longer
than ours in the Americas. Our friends and allies in Europe have
developed and shed numerous political systems. Our friends and allies
in Asia and Africa live in cultures that reach back for millennia. The
aspirations and concepts that underlie modern human rights doctrine
are present in many of the world's major cultural traditions. That is
precisely why -- when the United Nations was founded -- its planners
conceived a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The drafters of the Universal Declaration saw all human beings as part
of a family - all brothers [and sisters]. They saw the human family as
being broken up into societies and nations with different values,
beliefs, economic and political systems. But the unifying principles
which make the human family a family is the universal desire to enjoy
these rights as set forth in the Universal Declaration. We believe
that peace, security and prosperity flow from respect for these rights
and from their enjoyment by all.
There have been remarkable changes in the world and in the UN since I
was privileged to represent the United States in a UN body. As I look
around this room today, I see representatives of countries who were
formerly not members because they did not enjoy independence and
self-determination, who today are democracies with dramatically
expanded rights. And I congratulate them.
Many do not believe that the Commission on Human Rights has kept pace
with the sweeping changes that have occurred in the world in recent
years. As a result, the Commission is fairly strongly criticized.
Some criticism aimed at the Commission overlooks positive steps taken
in recent sessions, but the widespread overall impression shared by
many is that too many serious and systematic abuses of human rights go
unchallenged or even covered-up in this body. The practice of electing
the Commission members from some of the world's worst human rights
offenders is especially serious. The cynical resort to procedural
tactics to avoid taking a position on human rights abuses has not gone
unnoticed and is widely and rightly criticized.
The government and the people whom I have the privilege of
representing want the Commission to keep the faith placed in it by the
United Nations' founders when they envisioned the prospect of a body
devoted to the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights.
We must not forget that human rights can be realized only through good
faith compliance and enforcement by governments and complemented by
the sustained vigilance of a civil society acting to ensure
compliance.
We want the Commission to be a forum where, despite the differences in
our cultures, political systems, and national experience, we can work
together to secure human rights for all. Promoting, protecting,
extending and championing these rights is worthy of our very best
effort.
Thank you.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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