*EPF502 02/25/00
Text: Albright Launches Annual Human Rights Country Reports
(China, Chechnya, Cuba, Burma, Sudan spotlighted) (1700)

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that "promoting human rights is and must remain an integral part of U.S. foreign policy," in releasing the State Department's country reports for calendar year 1999 at a news conference February 25.

"These reports reflect America's commitment to international norms of respect for human dignity and freedom for all people," she said of the 6,000-page document.

"Serious and repeated abuses of human rights are everybody's business," she continued. "For those who employ children as soldiers and slaves, as in Sudan, exploitation is a choice. For those who deny their citizens even the most basic rights, as in Cuba and North Korea, repression is a choice. For those who refuse a dialogue with democratic leaders, as in Burma, ignoring the public will is a choice. And for those who devastate whole neighborhoods through indiscriminate attacks, as in Chechnya, brutality is a choice."

Albright then called on the Russian government "to launch full and open investigations into credible reports of massacres and other human rights violations in Chechnya."

On China, Albright stressed that the United States "will continue to speak out on behalf of those in China who are systematically denied basic political and religious freedoms." To this effect, the United States "will seek a resolution focusing attention on such practices at the U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting this spring," she said.

Albright also focused attention on "the challenge posed by trafficking in human beings. This is a growing, global problem that each year robs millions, mostly women and children, of their rights, their loved ones and often their very lives."

(The 1999 country reports are available on the worldwide web at www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/99hrp_index.html)

Following is the text of Albright's remarks, as prepared for delivery:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
As Prepared for Delivery

February 25, 2000

Opening Remarks of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
Release of Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

February 25, 2000

Good afternoon, before I begin with the business at hand, I have a brief announcement. A few minutes ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Bishop Artemije, the Kosovar Serb leader, and member of Yugoslavia's democratic opposition. We reaffirmed our common commitment to a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo, and the importance we both attached to full participation of the Serb community in this process.

In this regard, Bishop Artemije indicated to me his intention to lead the Serb National Council, of which he is President, to take the seat reserved for the Serb representative on Kosovo's Interim Administrative Council, and to encourage Serb participation in all other relevant UN-sponsored administrative structures in Kosovo.

And now for the main purpose of my coming here today. I am pleased to release the State Department's Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999. These reports reflect America's commitment to international norms of respect for human dignity and freedom for all people.

Thanks to Under Secretary Loy, Assistant Secretary Koh and their team, and to U.S. Embassy personnel around the globe, these reports have earned a reputation for candor, objectivity and thoroughness. They have become an indispensable resource to everyone concerned with human rights.

I want to emphasize the amount of work that goes into preparing these reports. It is a huge and labor-intensive task, demanding countless hours of collecting and analyzing data. The resources required are among the many reasons I will be fighting hard for the President's full budget request for State Department operations this year.

I cannot, in my brief remarks this afternoon, fairly summarize the data these reports so thoroughly depict. I would, however, like to make four general points.

First, promoting human rights is and must remain an integral part of U.S. foreign policy. When governments respect human rights, they contribute to a more stable, just and peaceful world.

When they do not, they often engender strife, for regimes that run roughshod over the rights of their own citizens may well show similar disregard for the rights of others.

Virtually every major act of international aggression during the 20th Century was initiated by a regime that repressed human rights. Such governments are also more likely to spark unrest by persecuting minorities, sheltering terrorists, running drugs or secretly building weapons of mass destruction.

As a global power with global interests, our nation will be more secure, our armed forces less at risk, and our citizens safer and more prosperous in a world where international standards of human rights are increasingly observed.

Second, serious and repeated abuses of human rights are everybody's business. In today's transformed world, ignorance of atrocities is barely possible and therefore no excuse. Sovereignty carries with it many rights, but killing and torturing innocent people are not among them. And it is simply wrong to suggest -- as some still do -- that human rights violations are just an inevitable byproduct of human nature.

Make no mistake, for those who employ children as soldiers and slaves, as in the Sudan, exploitation is a choice.

For those who deny their citizens even the most basic rights, as in Cuba and North Korea, repression is a choice.

For those who refuse a dialogue with democratic leaders, as in Burma, ignoring the public will is a choice.

And for those who devastate whole neighborhoods through indiscriminate attacks, as in Chechnya, brutality is a choice. And in this connection, I want to re-iterate today our call for the Russian Government to launch full and open investigations into credible reports of massacres and other human rights violations in Chechnya.

The governments I have mentioned and others have the power to choose; they also have the responsibility to change. And we have a responsibility -- which we are meeting -- to keep the spotlight turned on high until they do.

But this leads to a third point, which is that there is no cookie cutter solution to abuses of international norms. The United States is sometimes criticized for inconsistency in its relations with governments that violate human rights. But a policy of consistent support for such rights does not require that we treat every country precisely the same. America has broad interests and responsibilities. And an approach that succeeds with country A may well backfire with country B.

China is perhaps the most prominent example of a country with which we have substantial and well-known differences on human rights, but with which we are also engaged on a wide variety of other issues.

Critics suggest that U.S. concerns about China's human rights record should be expressed by denying normal relations on trade. The Administration believes that approach would actually undercut the positive forces at work in China.

As the reports we release today reflect, we will continue to speak out on behalf of those in China who are systematically denied basic political and religious freedoms. And we will seek a resolution focusing attention on such practices at the UN Human Rights Commission meeting this spring.

But we also see greater prospects for progress by pursuing our interests through our ties with China than by cutting those ties.

For example, the Administration has negotiated an agreement with Beijing on China's accession to the WTO. That agreement will benefit both countries economically. But it will also require China to follow international trading rules, open its regulations to public scrutiny and reduce the role of state-owned enterprises. This should expand the rule of law and hasten the development of a more open society.

The human rights situation in China will not be transformed overnight. But joining the WTO will add to the pressures welling up from within China for greater personal and political freedom. That is why democratic leaders such as Hong Kong's Martin Lee have expressed strong support for the WTO agreement on human rights grounds.

With respect to both human rights and trade, our policy towards China is the same: to engage on principle, to encourage China to participate in the international system, and to press China to observe international rules.

Finally, in this the fifth year after the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, I want to express particular concern for the rights of women and girls.

Progress is being made economically and in putting issues such as domestic abuse and the need for legal reform on national agendas around the world. But as the reports released today indicate, there remains much to be done.

That is why, for the first time, we have included a special section in each country's report on the challenge posed by trafficking in human beings. This is a growing, global problem that each year robs millions -- mostly women and children -- of their rights, their loved ones and often their very lives.

These reports will reinforce the diplomatic and law enforcement initiative we have launched to prevent abuses, protect victims and prosecute traffickers. And it will help us to spread the word that this pernicious traffic must be met with a stoplight that is visible around the equator and from pole to pole.

In closing let me say that, despite widespread problems, we are blessed to live at a time of broader respect for basic human rights than ever before in history.

This progress is attributable in part to great leaders such as the Roosevelts and Mandela, Gandhi and Havel, Kim Dae-jung and Martin Luther King. But it is the result even more of the "not famous," of those who have forged networks, sent telegrams, carried placards, monitored, witnessed, and otherwise refused to be silent in the face of human rights abuses around the world.

There was a time, not that long ago, when it would have seemed beside the point to raise the issue of human rights in a diplomatic or foreign policy setting. Today, promoting democracy and human rights often is the main point. And the world is far better for it.

Thank you, and now I would be pleased to turn the podium over to Assistant Secretary Koh.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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