The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001.  Please see www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date.  This site is not updated so external links may no longer function.  Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

Harold Hongju Koh Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Remarks to the UN Commission on Human Rights 55th Session, Geneva, Switzerland, April, 1999

Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms In Any Part of the World -- Item 9

Madam Chair, on behalf of the United States of America, I am honored to address this, the world's preeminent international forum on human rights, so soon after the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That Declaration challenges us, as countries committed to human rights, to ensure that freedom and the rule of law are our guiding principles as we struggle to achieve a world in which all people are "free and equal in dignity and rights." Such a world is far from a reality, but the very fact that we gather here in Geneva each year demonstrates how far we have come together in embracing the Universal Declaration as a common set of shared principles.

We in the United States treasure these principles, not because we are perfect, but because we struggle daily to live these ideals. Much of our history -- from the Civil War to the civil rights movement -- has been the story of Americans demanding that their government constantly improve its promotion and protection of human rights. Like all countries, we must confront and overcome unfinished human rights challenges at home. But as a nation conceived in liberty, we remain dedicated to the proposition that persons everywhere are created free and equal.

Some think us arrogant for asking this Commission to discuss human rights in other countries. They would use the fact that we are not perfect to demand that we not comment on problems elsewhere. But we are proud of our human rights record, welcome comparisons with other countries, and urge them to do the same. We welcome efforts to promote human rights in the United States, in keeping with our recognition of the universality of human rights and our openness as a democratic society. That is why President Clinton recently signed an executive order that strengthens the U.S. Government's ability to implement human rights treaties. That is why we welcome investigation and honest discussion of our own human rights record, and call on other countries to do the same with their own.

That is also why we reject arguments that any particular regional, national, ethnic, cultural, or linguistic values justify the abuse of our shared value of universal human rights. As someone raised in America with Korean family values, I know of no Asian value that explains why the Burmese junta cynically refused to allow a dying husband --the late Michael Aris -- to rejoin his wife, Aung San Suu Kyi, before he passed away last week. We mourn the death of this courageous champion of human rights and honor the ongoing struggle of the Burmese people. We call on all nations to join us in condemning the Burmese junta's continuing efforts to politicize human tragedy and to repress fundamental human rights. Recognizing shared principles also means acknowledging that civil and political rights, and economic, cultural, and social rights are, in the words of the Vienna Declaration, "universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated." As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt recognized long ago, freedom from want is not just an economic right, but a right deeply connected to political freedom. The surest road to ensure economic rights is an open and transparent political system that respects all the rights of all its citizens.

To protect political and economic freedom, we must first recognize the indissoluble link between human rights and political democracy. As Secretary Madeleine Albright recently noted, "one of the most fundamental challenges we face at the dawn of the new millennium is ensuring the future of democracy. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the most extensive expansion of human freedom in history. From Johannesburg to Riga, and from East Berlin to Ulaanbaatar, walls fell, statues of dictators toppled, political prisons emptied and long-silenced voters marched to the polls."

It is time for all nations to recognize that democratic governance is not an experiment; it is a right accorded to all people under the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

To support this right we must applaud the steps taken in Nigeria, where recent elections, although marred by irregularities, represent a significant step toward democratic rule. As Commission members, we must support the Nigerian government's efforts to restore democracy and respect for human rights, releasing political prisoners, allowing independent political parties to form, and permitting independent journalists greater freedom. But promoting democracy means more than just holding elections. That is why we support the efforts of the Government of Indonesia not just to advance parliamentary elections, revise electoral laws, and complete selection of a new president by the end of the year, but to permit the revival of civil society, the formation of new political parties, the release of political prisoners, the expansion of independent media, and the growth of groups demanding improved protections for human rights and fuller participation for women and ethnic and religious minorities in Indonesian society. The courageous struggle of the people of Nigeria and Indonesia again demonstrates the universality of the human rights principles we celebrate and shows why we must promote democracy, as both an end in itself and as a means to expand and advance human rights.

By the same token, when democracy is absent, human rights suffer. This is nowhere more evident than in the former Yugoslavia, where as I speak, the regime of Slobodan Milosevic has renewed its murderous campaign of terror against its own citizens. The United States condemns the escalation of brutal Serbian attacks against the Kosovar Albanian civilian population. The claim of sovereignty can provide no justification for murdering, razing villages, expelling citizens, torching homes, and the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. At the same time, Belgrade's suppression of domestic and foreign media in Serbia seeks to deny the world knowledge of its systematic abuse of human rights.

The same systematic violation of human rights has plagued Sierra Leone, where rebel forces kill and maim with extraordinary cruelty, leaving behind a bloody trail of murder, mutilation, rape, abduction, and destruction. Nothing in political rebellion requires or justifies the amputation of ears, noses, hands, arms, and legs of civilians - including small children and the elderly - or the abduction, torture, and conscription of innocent children into rebel forces. Similarly, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, government and rebel forces - as well as troops of the governments supporting each side - have committed extrajudicial executions, torture, beatings, and rape. In the past year, security forces, and, at times, incensed civilian crowds egged on by hate radio, have murdered suspected rebels, even while rebel forces have massacred large numbers of civilians.

Some claim that this Commission should not focus on country situations. But as these situations demonstrate, in some countries, human rights abuses are simply too pervasive to be addressed by thematic resolutions. Nor should country-specific resolutions be limited to countries trapped in open conflict, internal insurgencies or civil war. In Afghanistan, for example, the Taliban's blatant mistreatment of women represents one of the most severe abuses of human rights in the world. This includes public beatings for failure to wear a burqa and for not being accompanied by a close male relative. Women have drastically limited access to medical services and education, and only a tiny few are allowed to hold jobs, forcing many to beg on the streets simply to feed their children. As First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has noted, "We cannot allow these terrible crimes....to continue with impunity.... We must do everything we can in our power to stop (them)."

In Iraq, the regime of Saddam Hussein continues its brutal campaign of executing perceived political opponents. Special Rapporteur Max Van der Stoel relates in his most recent report for the Commission that as many as 2,500 have been summarily killed without due process of law while in government custody since autumn 1997. The assassinations of three of Iraq's most senior Islamic clerics are also of special concern. Sheik Borojourdi in April 1998, Ayatollah Ali al Gharawi in June 1998, and Ayatollah Mohammed al-Sader -- the most senior Shi'a cleric in Iraq -- in February 1999, have each been murdered, each reportedly following months of arrests and interrogations by government security services. Their deaths come in the context of a resurgence of repression in southern Iraq and the continued internal displacement of Iraqi Kurds and Turkomen in the north. The government continues to ignore appeals by Mr. Van der Stoel and others for access by human rights monitors to investigate these reports.

Similarly, in Sudan the government suppresses all forms of political and religious dissent, utilizing extrajudicial execution, disappearances, torture, beatings, harassment, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The government severely restricts freedom of speech and the press and the right of assembly has been effectively eliminated. Authorities continue to restrict the activities of Christians, followers of traditional African beliefs and other Muslim critics of the regime. And perhaps worst of all is the continued enslavement of women and children, almost all of whom are black southerners or members of indigenous tribes of the Nuba Mountains.

Madam Chair, this Commission has a duty to address these country situations through country resolutions. This year, let us agree that when pervasive human rights violations in a country persist, when human rights conditions in a country have deteriorated, and when bilateral and regional efforts to protest those conditions have been rebuffed, this Commission should, as a matter of principle, condemn these abuses and propose mechanisms to promote their remedy. Let us also agree that no country should be able to undermine the Commission's right to fulfill its duty to examine human rights violations through "no-action" motions that prevent honest discussion of whether a country's conduct meets shared international standards.

To reaffirm these principles, the United States will introduce a resolution this year with respect to China, where authorities have initiated a crackdown against organized political opposition. Dozens of political activists have been detained for peaceful political activities, and three leaders of the China Democracy Party have been given harsh sentences in closed trials that clearly violated due process. The government has taken steps to control the media, shutting down an influential book publisher and several popular newspapers, increasing its monitoring of the Internet, firing some editors and writers, and warning other papers about the permissible content of articles and editorials. The Chinese Government also has attempted to restrict religious practice to officially sanctioned organizations and registered places of worship and detained Chinese citizens because of the peaceful expression of their political or religious beliefs. In Tibet, repressive social and political controls continued to limit fundamental freedoms and to undermine Tibet's unique cultural, religious and linguistic heritage. There are credible reports of the imprisonment and torture of monks and nuns, the death of prisoners, and the closure of monasteries. The Government has yet to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama, and despite repeated international expressions of concern about the welfare of the boy designated as the Panchen Lama, the Chinese Government continues to refuse access to him by international observers.

These developments represent a deterioration in China's human rights conditions, which our government and others have protested through bilateral channels. Although last year the Chinese Government signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it has not yet ratified that Covenant, addressed existing abuses, or brought its laws or actions into conformity with the Covenant's standards. While we value our bilateral dialogue with China about human rights, dialogue cannot substitute for meaningful action on human rights.

By our resolution, the United States will urge China -- as a matter of principle -- to respect the rights protected by the ICCPR, including not just the freedom of conscience, expression, religion, and association, but also the rights to a fair trial, to personal security, and to peaceful political dissent.

We ask all member States to join us in reaffirming the important principles that the right to democracy necessarily includes a right to peaceful democratic dissent and that any government's conduct may be examined by this Commission under universal human rights standards. For these reasons, we must support a resolution this year regarding conditions in Cuba. As we well know, despite the Pope's visit early in 1998, the government of Fidel Castro continues to suppress ruthlessly all forms of political dissent. Authorities routinely engage in arbitrary detention of human rights advocates and independent journalists, subjecting them to interrogation, threats, and degrading treatment. In the last few months, the Government passed newly repressive laws and sentenced the four founders of the Internal Dissidents' Working Group -- Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, Felix Bonne Carcasses, Rene Gomez Manzano, and Vladimiro Roca Antunes -- to outrageous sentences for the supposed crime of nonviolently exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.

Many of the countries represented here today are now led by former political dissidents. As a matter of principle, we must join together in protesting such bold and bald invasions of the right of peaceful democratic dissent.

Madam Chair, numerous other countries present human rights challenges that should be addressed by this Commission session. In Belarus, the government of President Aleksandr Lukashenko neutralizes all opposition to his authoritarian practices. In Equatorial Guinea, the government maintains power through intimidation, coercion, and fraud, committing serious and systematic human rights abuses.

In Algeria, armed groups continue to massacre civilians and reports of human rights abuses by the nation's security forces continue. Presidential elections are scheduled by April 15, which if free and fair should help orient this country toward renewal and reconciliation. In Iran, despite improvements in some areas, the government's human rights record remains an area of great concern. As detailed by the Commission's Special Representative, continuing violations of human rights include extrajudicial executions, torture, disappearances, the failure to meet international standards in the administration of justice, the absence of respect for internationally recognized legal safeguards, and the use of national security laws to deny the rights of individuals. Iran continues to practice severe repression against adherents of minority religions, especially the Baha'i minority, and practices discrimination in law against women. And in North Korea, the appalling policies of the government have left huge portions of the population facing starvation.

Madam Chair, last week, the Milosevic regime closed Belgrade's independent television station, B-92, and arrested its courageous owner, Veran Matic. When I heard the news, it reminded me of my visit to B-92 just last December, when an interviewer asked how we can give hope to the people of the former Yugoslavia during their current crisis. I asked them please to remember that Madeleine Albright was the child of Czech exiles who fled to democracy and freedom. Now she is America's Secretary of State. I am the child of Korean exiles, and I now have the privilege of speaking for my country on human rights. And today, both of our homelands -- the Czech Republic and the Republic of Korea -- are free and democratic. As we begin the Universal Declaration's next 50 years, let us remember together how far we have all come in the struggle for human rights and democratic governance, and how far we still have to go. Let us commit ourselves to work together in this Commission session to advance the cause of democracy and human rights so that we, the peoples of the United Nations, may secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Thank you.

[end of document]

Commission on Human Rights | Kosovo | Policy Remarks
Bureau of Human Rights, Democracy, and Labor | Department of State

This is an official U.S. Government source for information on the WWW.
Inclusion of non-U.S. Government links does not imply endorsement of contents.