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Harold Hongju Koh Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Statement at Commission on Human Rights 55th Session, Geneva, Switzerland, April 21, 1999

U.S. Priorities at the UN Commission on Human Rights

Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming today. I would like to use our time to discuss the main U.S. priorities here at the UN Commission on Human Rights. I have a statement prepared for you, and then we can move directly to your questions.

The primary focus of our involvement here this year is to acknowledge the vital link between democracy and human rights. As most of you know, the United States is introducing a resolution on the right to democracy that makes just that point.

Democracy is on the rise all over the world, and with good reason. Government that reflects the will of the people speaks to a universal desire for responsive and responsible government. At the same time, the evidence is overwhelming: Where democracy is disregarded, human rights are usually disregarded too.

We recognize that democracy means more than just holding elections, important as they are. True democratic government rests on the foundation of free and open civil institutions -- a free press, the rule of law, the right of peaceful assembly, and the right of every citizen to participate fully in his nation's political life, irrespective of race, religion, gender, or ethnic origin. Building and maintaining such institutions is not always easy. That is why the United States spends more than $1 billion a year across the globe, helping struggling democracies and governments in transition create the environment in which democracy and human rights can be respected and sustained.

I have just returned from visiting The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where I visited the Stankovec and Brazda transit camps. What I saw there only reinforced my horror at the massive lawlessness, human rights abuses and destruction caused by Slobodan Milosevic's savage and brutal attacks on the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo. Even for those who follow the events there closely, the scope of the barbarity is truly shocking. What we are witnessing is a massive epidemic of ethnic cleansing and human rights violations. War crimes, crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of international law -- including widespread rape, and summary and arbitrary executions -- all have taken place. We also are seeing new mass strategies for terrorizing and displacing persons, such as the use of human shields and "identity cleansing" -- the act of stripping people of their documents and hence their identities so that they cannot return to their homes. There are reports, too, of adult men being separated from their families and slaughtered. Medical neutrality has been grossly violated: I heard accounts of hospitals converted into police stations, the expulsion of ethnic Albanian patients from Kosovo still in their hospital gowns, and wholesale disregard for the Hippocratic oath. Meanwhile, upwards of a million people have been forced to seek refuge in neighboring states or seek shelter somewhere within Kosovo.

Atrocities of this scale do not just simply happen. They are meticulously planned. The logistical burden of such massive displacement alone demonstrates the extent of the resources that have been deliberately dedicated to executing Milosevic's plans. Such massive human rights catastrophes demand an immediate response form the international human rights community. That is one of the main reasons I am here: to help ensure that the Commission adopts our strong and uncompromising resolution on human rights conditions in the former Yugoslavia by an overwhelming margin.

You are all probably aware that the United States is also sponsoring a resolution on human rights in China. Frankly, it has never been easy to get the Commission to pass a resolution on China. But we believe that if you cannot discuss serious human rights violations at the UN Commission on Human Rights, where can you? Every country has the right to examine other countries' human rights records. That was a major conclusion of the Vienna Declaration in 1993 -- and every UN member state embraced it, including China.

So we believe that country situations must be addressed, particularly when pervasive human rights violations persist, where there have been deteriorations in human rights in the last year -- as in the case of China -- and when bilateral and regional efforts to affect changes have not succeeded. Country resolutions should come up for full discussion at the Commission. We do not believe that "no action motions" or other efforts to avoid discussion of country conditions are consistent with the purposes of having a Commission on Human Rights.

And so, while we acknowledge that rising national prosperity has meant more personal freedom and opportunity for many Chinese people, we cannot remain silent with respect to China's continuing abuse of universal human rights, including the deprivation of the right of political freedom.

Similarly, with regard to Cuba, during the past few months, many democratic governments around the world heeded the Pontiff's prayer that the world would open to Cuba, but Cuba has not opened to the world. In fact, human rights conditions there have deteriorated. As the world celebrated the 50 anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, literally hundreds of human rights activists were arrested in Cuba. These actions, combined with the recent trials and conviction of human rights leaders, harsh new legislation providing legal penalties for contacts with foreigners, and a campaign against foreign journalists have brought well-deserved international condemnation and re-emphasized the reasons the world remains concerned.

We appreciate the efforts the Czech Republic and Poland have made in sponsoring a resolution condemning Cuba's poor human rights record, and we strongly urge every nation which believes in the importance of universal human rights to vote for the Czech and Polish resolution.

As for Iran, I would like to make the point that the human rights situation there has not improved over the past year, despite the government's positive statements. We have many concerns about the way individual rights continue to be violated in Iran, and we believe that the government's persistent repression of religious minorities and their abusive treatment of women necessitate a strong condemnation by the Commission.

Event in Kosovo demonstrate that we must be outspoken in our defense of human rights. We must use this Commission to tell the truth and expose human rights violations wherever they occur.

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Commission on Human Rights | Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
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