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| Powell Addresses the Creation of a Caucus of Democracies |
| 2004-04-23 |
| Excerpted from Powell’s address to the Staff of Freedom House an NGO founded by Elanor Roosevelt. ... It’s fitting, therefore, that we gather here, today, after a Freedom House discussion about the world’s worst human rights abusers, because George Bush is concerned about them, concerned about the problem they create for their people and for the world. And it’s fitting that we do so as we look ahead, as was noted earlier, in just four days to this year’s UN Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva. It’s no secret that we’ve been disappointed with the CHR in recent years. As the country, the United States, that originally championed the UN system, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Commission on Human Rights, we Americans have been saddened by the fact that the commission has sometimes been used to shield human rights abusers from the condemnation they richly deserve. The credibility of the CHR has been damaged. In the face of what has happened, some people say, well let’s just forget about it, forget about the CHR, forget about the United Nations, and throw up our hands and walk away. But not us. We’re not quitters.The world would not understand if we walked away from these international institutions. So with our democratic partners we seek to restore the integrity of the Commission on Human Rights, re-energize its capacities, and rebuild its credibility. And once we’ve done that we’re going to turn up the volume. We’re going to make life more uncomfortable for regimes like those in Belarus, Burma, Cuba, North Korea and Zimbabwe, which violate, repeatedly and systematically, the inalienable human rights of their peoples. We’re going to continue to support even more persecuted human rights activists like Aung San Suu Kyi and Oswaldo Paya. The United States will support resolutions on these and other countries’ human rights records this year at the meetings, and we will call on all democratic states to join us in defending human rights, consistent with the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights. And that’s not all we’ve got in mind for the UN system and for its associated agencies. As you know, the United States has strongly supported the Community of Democracies, which brings together over 100 democratic nations to strengthen democratic principles around the world. And now we’re building on the Community of Democracies to form a democracy caucus within the United Nations system. Such a grouping, united by its members’ shared ideals and democratic practices, will help the entire UN system live up to its founding principles. We envision a coalition of democratic countries consulting and cooperating in how they will vote in the UN, and uniting our voices to promote democratic ideals worldwide. We want to provide an alternative network to existing blocs, not a replacement for them. We want all countries to be able to freely associate themselves with the ideals of freedom that will carry their peoples to security, prosperity and peace in the 21st century. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #2 I'd rather he be our ambassador the the Community of Democracies, not within the UN, but as a separate (and more effective) organization. Of course, any local quilting guild is a more effective organization that the UN. Fuck the UN. And the illicit oil barrels it rode in on. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-04-23 6:02:24 PM |
| #1 Interested to see if Powell will be the next ambassador to the UN -- since he's semi-announced he won't be returning for the second term. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2004-04-23 11:29:00 AM |