Shining A Light On Human Rights

In a few months, the United States will release our annual global report on human rights for the 29th time. In the summer, we will release another report, this one about U.S. government support for human rights and democracy. These reports draw heavily from the Declaration, subsequent international agreements on human rights, and the founding documents of our nation's democracy. They seek to describe how the world has honored these ideals or fallen short and their descriptions guide the United States throughout the year. We do not publish these reports because we claim to be perfect, for we are not. However, we accept that we are always in the public's eye and that we are accountable for our actions. We use these reports to open ourselves up, as well as to shine the spotlight on the actions taken by other countries and to hold them accountable, whether they are fellow defenders of human rights or the worst abusers. We recognize the importance of leading the international community in promoting the values of the Declaration. The United States is pleased to be working with British and coalition forces to bring stability and equality to Iraq, a country that has been denied one or the other for decades, first by the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and now by insurgents. Saddam is no longer in power and the insurgents who feel threatened by equality and democracy will fail. As President Bush has said, "All they have is the capacity and the willingness to kill the innocent and create chaos for the cameras…. And they will fail because the will to power is no match for the universal desire to live in liberty." The December 15 elections will be yet another concrete reminder that millions of Iraqis prefer freedom to repression and elections to violence. http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukamb/tuttle012.html

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